Fragments of Edward P. Thompson’s literature: the prose of The Sykaos Papers and the verses of My Study

Abstract

Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993) was one of the foremost historians of the 20^th century. His Sykaos Papers were published in 1998 as a science fiction book about the anxieties of the nuclear age, but also as a declaration of love (and of rights) for a certain blue planet. This paper intends to highlight some elements and aspects of Thompson’s novel. One more general subject would be the analysis of Thompson’s writings about the literary practice itself, and of the boundaries and intersections between this practice and the “historical logic”. The central source for this analysis is the poem My Study, written in September 1973.