OWAD 9 OWAD utstanding issertations The monograph series Outstanding WA Dissertations (OWAD) presents a selection of the most remarkable doctoral BOCZKOWSKA KORNELIA 9 theses defended in the Faculty of English, AMU. It covers linguistic, literary and cultural studies. The goal of the series is to promote the work of young scholars and to support original research which makes a significant contribution to scholarship and deserves to be disseminated. and Russian Cosmism and Russian American of impact The KORNELIA BOCZKOWSKA The impact of American and Russian Wydział Anglistyki Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in 20th century ISBN 978-83-232-3033-5 American and Soviet space art ISSN 2450-9817 WYDAWNICTWO NAUKOWE UAM The impact of American and Russian Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in 20th century American and Soviet space art FACULTY OF ENGLISH ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY OF POZNAŃ Outstanding WA Dissertations OWAD 9 Kornelia Boczkowska The impact of American and Russian Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in 20th century American and Soviet space art Poznań 2016 ABSTRACT. Boczkowska Kornelia. The impact of American and Russian Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in 20th century Ameri- can and Soviet space art. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Poznań 2016. Pp. 436, Figs. 21. OWAD 9. ISBN 978-83-232-3033-5. ISSN 2450-9817. Text in English with summary in Polish. The aim of this dissertation is to explore and compare the impact of Russian and Ameri- can Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in selected 20th century Ameri- can and Soviet space art works in the context of both nations’ culture and literature of the period. The source material are 200 works of American (100) and Soviet (100) space art (1944-1991) which become subject to visual content analysis whose purpose is to examine the relation between the chief assumptions of Russian and American Cosmism and the image of space exploration constructed by American and Soviet artists. The re- search results obtained from the study have suggested that while the investigated repre- sentation of space exploration in the Soviet works can reflect approximately 70% of pri- mary assumptions of Russian Cosmism, its depiction in the U.S. images seems to concep- tualize approximately 80% of American Cosmism’s chief tenets. KEY WORDS: Russian Cosmism, American Cosmism, American space art, Soviet space art, space exploration. Kornelia Boczkowska, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, al. Niepodległości 4, 61-874 Poznań, Poland; email: [email protected] Publikacja finansowana ze środków Wydziału Anglistyki UAM Reviewer/Recenzent dr hab. Marek Paryż, prof. UW © Kornelia Boczkowska 2016 This edition © Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2016 Cover design/Projekt okładki: Agnieszka Frydrychewicz Typesetting and formatting/Skład i formatowanie: Pracownia Wydawnicza WA UAM ISBN 978-83-232-3033-5 ISSN 2450-9817 WYDAWNICTWO NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU IM. ADAMA MICKIEWICZA 61-701 POZNAŃ, UL. FREDRY 10 www.press.amu.edu.pl Sekretariat: tel. 61 829 46 46, fax 61 829 46 47, e-mail: [email protected] Dział sprzedaży: tel. 61 829 46 40, e-mail: [email protected] Wydanie I. Ark. wyd. 29,00. Ark. druk. 27,25. DRUK I OPRAWA: EXPOL, WŁOCŁAWEK, UL. BRZESKA 4 Table of contents List of figures ................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1 Russian Cosmism .......................................................................................... 19 1.1. Russian Cosmism: Toward a definition ............................................ 20 1.1.1. Cosmism in the context of 19th and early 20th century Russian philosophy, culture and literature ............................ 25 1.1.2. Mystic, esoteric and occult dimensions of Cosmism .............. 27 1.1.3. Religious and scientific Cosmists ........................................... 31 1.2. Nikolai Fedorov and the Common task ............................................ 32 1.3. Religious Cosmists ............................................................................ 40 1.3.1. Vladimir Solov’ev .................................................................... 40 1.3.2. Sergei Bulgakov and Pavel Florenskii ..................................... 43 1.3.3. Nikolai Berdiaev ..................................................................... 50 1.3.3.1. A nationalist dimension of Cosmism: Berdiaev and the Russian Soul .................................................. 52 1.3.4. Conclusion .............................................................................. 64 1.4. Scientific Cosmists ............................................................................ 65 1.4.1. Alexandr Sukhovo-Kobylin: The forerunner of scientific Cosmism ................................................................................. 65 1.4.2. Konstantin Tsiolkovskii .......................................................... 67 1.4.3. Aleksandr Chizhevskii, Vladimir Vernadskii and Vasilii Kuprevich .............................................................. 72 1.4.4. Conclusion .............................................................................. 77 1.5. Cosmism and its impact on selected aspects of 20th century Russian and Soviet culture ............................................................... 79 1.6. Concluding remarks. the present day status of Cosmism ................. 79 Chapter 2 American Cosmism ........................................................................................ 97 2.1. Outer space and space exploration in light of the humanities .......... 98 6 Table of contents 2.2. Defining a space-oriented philosophy, astroculture and space ethos ................................................................................ 101 2.2.1. Astroculture .......................................................................... 104 2.2.2. Space ethos ........................................................................... 105 2.3. American Cosmism .......................................................................... 110 2.3.1. Spaceflight as a religious experience ..................................... 111 2.3.1.1. Textual and visual evidence ...................................... 113 2.3.1.2. Sacred texts, rituals and spaceflight adherents ........ 123 2.3.1.3. The Overview Effect .................................................. 125 2.3.2. The visionaries of space travel ............................................... 131 2.3.3. The role of national mythologies in envisioning space endeavours ............................................................................ 136 2.3.4. Science, esotericism and the occult in American Cosmism ..... 143 2.3.4.1. The Overview Effect as a salvational worldview: Textual and visual evidence ..................................... 144 2.3.4.2. The New Age and its impact on American Cosmism .................................................................... 155 2.3.4.3. SETI as a parapsychical and occultist phenomenon ...... 162 2.4. Concluding remarks. comparing Russian and American Cosmism ................................................................... 170 Chapter 3 American and Soviet space art in the context of 20th culture and literature ................................................................................................ 177 3.1. American and russian definitions of space art ................................ 177 3.2. The history of american and Soviet space art ................................. 188 3.2.1. Literary beginnings ............................................................... 188 3.2.2. Space art in non-fiction works ............................................... 197 3.2.3. The rise of space art in American and Soviet magazines and popular science texts ...................................................... 200 3.2.4. Space art in print and broadcast media since the 1940s ...... 203 3.2.4.1. The American cultural and literary context ............. 203 3.2.4.2. The Soviet cultural and literary context ................... 214 3.3. The American tradition of space art ............................................... 220 3.3.1. The Hudson River School influences: The sublime and the picturesque .............................................................. 220 3.3.2. Realist influences: Manifest Destiny, the NASA Art Programme and the IAAA .............................. 225 3.4. The Soviet tradition of space art ..................................................... 229 3.4.1. Space art in the U.S.S.R. Union of Artists ............................ 229 3.4.2. The influence of propaganda ................................................ 230 3.4.3. Realist, romantic and symbolic influences ........................... 234 Table of contents 7 3.5. The impact of 20th century advances in space research and exploration on space art ........................................................... 237 3.6. Concluding remarks. The current trends in contemporary space art .............................................................. 244 Chapter 4 The impact of Russian and American Cosmism on the representation of space exploration in selected works of American and Soviet space art ..................................................................................... 249 4.1. The