Delineating Mars: The Geopoetics of the Red Planet in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars

• Sofiya FILONENKO ^[1]
  1. [1] Berdуansk State Pedagogical University
• Localización: Hélice, ISSN-e 1887-2905, Vol. 8, Nº. 2, 2022-2023, págs. 127-143
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Ejemplar
• Resumen

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars is an early example of a Red Planet depiction in science fiction, and also a trailblazing speculative landscape imaginary. As the first novel in the sprawling Barsoom cycle charting the adventures of the earthling John Carter and members of his family on Mars, it depicts the distant planet as not so much a space of utopia, but rather as an ideal setting for adventure and romance. Burroughs’ Mars therefore becomes analogous to the American frontier, the edge of civilisation—the novel’s narrative departs geographically, but perhaps not ideologically, from the earthly deserts of Arizona, where its Confederate officer protagonist formerly sought gold and fought the aborigines. This article argues that, beyond the frontier theme, the Martian landscape comprises a fictional fairy-tale reflection of Earth, transposed to an maginary world which is not quite Mars itself.

    Ultimately, this is a dead landscape, no longer capable of supporting vegetation—and barely capable of supporting any life whatsoever—as Burroughs’ depictions of landscape in the novel repeatedly underscore.