'Ghosts from other planets': plurality of worlds, afterlife and satire in Emanuel Swedenborg's De Telluribus in mundo nostro solari (1758).
Annals of science October 1, 2020 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2020.1817557 via PubMed
Summary
Emanuel Swedenborg's 1758 treatise De Telluribus combined two popular literary genres: writings on the plurality of worlds and dialogues of the dead. Swedenborg claimed to communicate with extraterrestrial spirits in the afterlife to promote his theology. The paper examines the treatise's content, its polarized reception, and its role in Swedenborg's career. It argues that Swedenborg was a versatile but unsuccessful recombiner of literary genres, and it sheds light on eighteenth-century literary interactions in Scandinavia and Germany involving plurality of worlds, mysticism, and satire.
Study at a glance
| Design | historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Swedenborg's De Telluribus was the first work to combine the literary codes of the plurality of worlds genre and the dialogues of the dead genre. |
Abstract
In 1758 in London, Swedish natural philosopher and mystic theologian Emanuel Swedenborg published De Telluribus in Mundo nostro Solari (Earths in our solar system), a treatise on the plurality of worlds and life on other planets. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these topics formed a heterogenous literary genre which encompassed theology, astronomy, philosophy and satire. In De Telluribus, Swedenborg made detailed claims of communication with extraterrestrial spirits in the afterlife, through which he sought to spread his theology to new audiences. The paper will explore the role of De Telluribus in Swedenborg's career, explain its content and analyse its polarized reception. It will show that De Telluribus combined for the first time the literary codes of two popular genres during the period, namely those concerning the plurality of worlds and the dialogues of the dead. By doing so, the paper revises current scholarly understanding of Swedenborg by showcasing him as a versatile yet ill-fated recombiner of literary genres. More broadly, the paper will shed light upon previously unnoticed eighteenth-century literary interactions along with a wider overview on the reception of themes such as the plurality of worlds, mysticism and satire in Scandinavia and Germany.