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2.4. Roots of Science Fiction – who was first? 
It turned out to be virtually impossible for scholars to determine the point in 
history when science fiction emerged, since there are numerous opposing 
views on what is accordingly regarded as science fiction (Bould x). As science 
fiction also occurs in new media, it is worth mentioning that the following brief 
history focuses almost exclusively on the science fiction as literature and is 
only partial, naming various trends and characteristic texts, but still hardly 
scrapes the surface of a dynamic, broad and continually developing genre.
Long before the term science fiction was coined, there were texts that 
contained elements which are now closely associated with science fiction 
(Bould 1). Feige as well shares this opinion, as he regards Homer’s odyssey in 
the 8
th
century B.C. as the basis for Jules Verne’s fantastic adventure novels. 
Those novels, he states, laid the foundations of today’s science fiction (Feige 
13). Thus, Feige is of the opinion that many science-fictional ideas took shape 
among the ancient Greeks. The different forms of society and the fantastic 
journeys of Ulysses represent its roots (Feige 15). 
Initial science fiction, according to Feige (6-7), had a low entertainment 
value as it rather consisted of politically motivated papers and essays. The 
English humanist and philosophical writer Sir Thomas Morus wrote Utopia 
(1516) which is one of the first political novels. He does not only describe in 
his work the social evil of his times and criticize the government, but also 
depicts an alternative version. His island Utopia portrays an ideal world, so to 
say a political, economical and social substitute. This and later stories of 
fictitious and paradisiacal countries, i.e. utopias, belong to the political field of 
science fiction. Those authors generally consider themselves as curers of the 
world’s ills, not as writers (Feige 7).
The scientific achievements could not have been possible without 
fantasy, but fantasy too enthusiastically made use of science. Decisive 
inventions appeared with the beginning of the industrialization in the 19
th
century and thus had a great impact on science fiction. Authors abstract 
developments and visions; the result of which is a triple of mutual influence: 

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10 
literature, technology and leisure (Feige 13-14). With the beginning of the 
industrialization in the 19
th
century and the demystification of previously “alien” 
regions, readers of fantastic literature could also escape from the rationally not 
immediately explicable matter, at least while reading (Feige 7).
As the founder of the modern era of science fiction, Feige considers 
Jules Verne whose inventiveness and fantasy served and still today serves as 
an example for numerous science fiction authors and stories. He supposedly 
was the first to focus on scientific and technological processes in literature 
(Feige 14-15). Kelleghan in contrast claims that science fiction has its roots in 
the nineteenth century and regards Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in 
King Arthur’s Court (1889) as the first time-travel novel, heralding 
contemporary works of Well and Verne (xx).
Furthermore, Feige states that the original technical fiction, i.e. science 
fiction which celebrates the unquestioning optimism of progress developed 
from the utopian fiction (Feige 7). However, Aldiss, British author of the 
multiple-award-winning Helliconia series (1982-1985), states that science 
fiction is just not as meant for scientists as ghost stories for ghosts. In most 
cases the scientific shell covers what is generally considered to be fantasy 
(Aldiss
1
cited in Feige 7). 
With the rapid progress and the development of new media and 
technologies, the interest in the future grew. The science fiction started looking 
ahead. Authors asked themselves how mankind would proceed. They 
frequently pointed to risks and dangers people would be confronted with in a 
present and future which is threatened to be entirely ruled by technology: the 
artificial human being as in Frankenstein and artificial intelligences put the fear 
of progress into the society. As a result of the political events in Europe in the 
middle of the 1920s the utopia turned into a dystopia. Violence, mind control, 
loneliness and standardization became essential topics – Huxley’s Brave New 
World and Orwell’s 1984 do not believe any longer in a positive future. They 
consider the restlessness of an intelligent readership which longed for a 
creative realization of their fears and not only for entertainment (Feige 8). 
Nonetheless, the most popular in gaining supporters is definitely Shelley’s 
novel Frankenstein as the pioneer of science fiction literature (Bould 2).