In his seminal study The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1970) Tzvetan Todorov describes the fantastic as follows: “In a world which is indeed our world, the one we know … there occurs an event which cannot be explained by the laws of the same familiar world.” In fantastic fiction the possible and the impossible are confounded in a way that leaves the reader both helpless and restless. The unresolvable plot, its fundamental ambiguity, brings about a genre-typical mood/mode of hesitation.
Whereas Todorov distinguishes the “pure fantastic” from the uncanny and the marvellous, many scholars responding to his model have opposed to and extended his strict genre definition, partly by pointing out the importance of the contextual dimension of the fantastic imagination. Rosemary Jackson (1981), for instance, considers fantastic fiction as a literature of subversion, either liberating the imagination from the chain of reason, or targeting repressive social, political and/or gender structures within society. Christine Brooke-Rose (1981) argues, that through its “rhetoric of the unreal” the fantastic brings ‘reality’ and the ‘real’ under scrutiny. In popular culture, conversely, the fantastic, and especially the sub-genre of fantasy, often counts as an escapist genre, offering a refuge away from the world.
In this course we will focus on various forms and functions of the literary fantastic. We will track the 19th and 20th century evolution of the fantastic as a literary genre, examining several fantastic sub-genres as the fairy-tale, stories of Black Romanticism, the Gothic, postmodern fantasy, and the postcolonial grotesque on our way. Starting from Todorov’s trail-blazing study we will on the one hand discuss the definition of the genre – its specificities as well as its significance –, and on the other we will try and compare various possible interpretive approaches ranging from structuralism and psycho-analysis to poststructuralism and Possible Worlds theory. To support and inspire us in this project we will read theoretical reflections by, among others, Michael Bakhtin, Christine Brooke-Rose, Neil Cornwell, Umberto Eco, Sigmund Freud, Linda Hutcheon, Rosemary Jackson, Marie-Laure Ryan, Tzvetan Todorov and Jack Zipes.
Our readings include:
ETA Hoffmann, Der Sandmann [The Sandman] (1816)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1816)
Edgar Allen Poe, The Rise and Fall of the House of Usher (1834)
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Das M?hen der 672. Nacht [Fairy Tale of the 672nd Night] (1895)
Arthur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle [Dream Story] (1926)
Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este Mundo [The Kingdom of this World] (1949)
Jorge Luis Borges, some stories from Labyrinths: Selected stories and other writings (1964)
Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman (1972)
Salman Rushdie, Shame (1983)
Alisdair Gray, Poor Things (1992)
Hafid Bouazza, De voeten van Abdullah [Abdullah’s Feet] (1996)
We will also view the films Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001).
Method of Instruction
Seminar
Course objectives
The objective of this course is twofold. On the one hand the course provides an in-depth overview of 19th and 20th century fantastic fiction and of the theory on the fantastic as a genre. On the other hand it aims to confront ‘the fantastic’ with ‘the real’ by scrutinising the interrelation between fantastic fictional worlds and their socio-political contexts.
Examination
Oral presentation and participation in group discussions (20%); Paper (80%)
Information
Please contact the instructor, mailto:e.minnaard@hum.leidenuniv.nl