19th-century undergrounds: Some images of the time

Of the depth of knowledge
By Thomas Conrad
English

In the 19th century, the images surrounding the underground evolve under the influence of new representations that originate from various sources of knowledge (geology, archaeology and mining technology) providing the underground with a time dimension. Thus, for Jules Verne, Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Gérard de Nerval, or Gaston Leroux, fictional undergrounds are not, first and foremost, places nor environments. Instead, they are metaphors of society’s historicity. Two main paradigms emerge: the underground as an archaeological memory, and as the underground-utopia of the mine.

Keywords

  • underground
  • Jules Verne
  • Émile Zola
  • Gaston Leroux
  • geology
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