DePauw University Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University Modern Languages Faculty publications Modern Languages 7-2021 Dorothy Scarborough. 'Supernatural Science' (1917) Arthur B. Evans DePauw University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.depauw.edu/mlang_facpubs Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation "Dorothy Scarborough. 'Supernatural Science' (1917)." Edited and annotated by Arthur B. Evans. Science Fiction Studies Vol. 48.2 (July 2021): 193-217. https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/documents/ scarborough.htm This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages at Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Modern Languages Faculty publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SCARBOROUGH’S “SUPERNATURAL SCIENCE” 193 DOCUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION Dorothy Scarborough Supernatural Science Introduced and annotated by Arthur B. Evans In its day, Dorothy Scarborough’s book The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction (1917) was considered to be the best scholarly study on the subject. As the author points out in the book’s preface, the sheer size of its corpus was impressive: “the supernatural in modern English fiction has been found difficult to deal with because of its wealth of material. While there has been no previous book on the topic, and none related to it ... the mass of fiction itself introducing ghostly or psychic motifs is simply enormous” (v). Scarborough divided her book into seven chapters: The Gothic Romance, Later Influences, Modern Ghosts, The Devil and His Allies, Supernatural Life, The Supernatural in Folk-Tales, and Supernatural Science.