Fantastique
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| - | "[[Warum kann ich mich an deinen sonderbaren phantastischen Blättern nicht sattsehen, du kecker Meister !]]"--''Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner'' (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann | + | "[[Why can't I get enough of your weird fantastic pages, you cheeky master!]]"--"Jaques Callot"'' in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner'' (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann |
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| - | [[Image:Le Voyage dans la lune.jpg|200px|thumb|right|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[fantasy]] series.<br><small>Illustration: Screenshot from ''[[A Trip to the Moon]]'' ([[1902]]) [[Georges Méliès]]</small> | + | |
| <hr> | <hr> | ||
| - | See also: ''[[fantastic art]], [[fantastic literature]]'']] | + | "The metaphysicians of Tlön do not seek for the [[truth]] or even for [[verisimilitude]], but rather for the astounding. They judge that [[metaphysics]] is a branch of [[fantastique|fantastic literature]]." --"[[Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius]]" by Borges |
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| + | ""[[Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter|Schalken]]" conforms more strictly to my own ideals. It is indeed one of the best of [[Sheridan Le Fanu|Le Fanu]]'s good things."--introduction to ''[[Ghosts and Marvels]]'' (1924) by [[M. R. James]] | ||
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| + | |} | ||
| + | [[Image:Du fantastique en littérature.jpg |thumb|200px|[[Du fantastique en littérature]]]] | ||
| + | [[Image:Le Voyage dans la lune.jpg|200px|thumb|right|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[fantasy]] series.<br><small>Illustration: Screenshot from ''[[A Trip to the Moon]]'' (1902) by Georges Méliès</small>]] | ||
| [[Image:Bomarzo turtle by Bartholomeus Breenbergh.jpg|thumb|200px|Turtle from the ''[[Gardens of Bomarzo]]'' by Bartholomeus Breenbergh]] | [[Image:Bomarzo turtle by Bartholomeus Breenbergh.jpg|thumb|200px|Turtle from the ''[[Gardens of Bomarzo]]'' by Bartholomeus Breenbergh]] | ||
| [[Image:La main de gloire.JPG|thumb|200px|''[[Hand of Glory]]'', anonymous]] | [[Image:La main de gloire.JPG|thumb|200px|''[[Hand of Glory]]'', anonymous]] | ||
| - | [[Image:Last Judgement.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[The Last Judgment (Bosch triptych fragment)]]'' by [[Hieronymus Bosch]]]] | ||
| - | [[Image:Blemmyes (legendary creatures).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Blemmyes (legendary creatures)|Blemmyes]] from [[Hartmann Schedel]]'s ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' ([[1493]])]] | ||
| - | [[Image:Joos de Momper.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Winter]]'', one of the ''[[The Four Seasons (Joos de Momper)|The Four Seasons]]'' (early [[17th century]]) by [[Joos de Momper]]]] | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| '''The fantastique''' is a term for a [[literary genre|literary]] and [[Film genre|cinematic genre]] of fiction, the parent category of which is [[speculative fiction]]. | '''The fantastique''' is a term for a [[literary genre|literary]] and [[Film genre|cinematic genre]] of fiction, the parent category of which is [[speculative fiction]]. | ||
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| + | Authors such as [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], [[Charles Nodier]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], [[Prosper Mérimée]], [[Gérard de Nerval]], [[Théophile Gautier]], [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam]], [[Guy de Maupassant]], [[Walter Scott]], [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[Ambrose Bierce]], [[H. P. Lovecraft]], [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]] and [[Julio Cortázar]] have been put in this category. | ||
| The term entered the French language via [[Walter Scott]] who in "[[On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition]]" (1827), his assessment of the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, uses the term ''[[fantastic]]'' to refer to a "mode of writing, in which the most wild and unbounded license is given to an irregular fancy", a sensibility Scott most readily perceives in the work of Hoffmann. | The term entered the French language via [[Walter Scott]] who in "[[On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition]]" (1827), his assessment of the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, uses the term ''[[fantastic]]'' to refer to a "mode of writing, in which the most wild and unbounded license is given to an irregular fancy", a sensibility Scott most readily perceives in the work of Hoffmann. | ||
| - | This essay was translated into French as "[[Sur Hoffmann et les compositions fantastiques]]" (1832) by François-Adolphe Loève-Veimars upon which the notion of the fantastique was further entrenched in French, but even before that Charles Nodier had written the critical piece "[[Du fantastique en littérature]]" (1830). | + | This essay was translated into French as "[[Sur Hoffmann et les compositions fantastiques]]" (1832) by François-Adolphe Loève-Veimars upon which the notion of the fantastique was further entrenched in French. But even before that Charles Nodier had written the critical piece "[[Du fantastique en littérature]]" (1830), the first text to trace the ''fantastique'' sensibility retro-actively. |
| In 1863 the term ''fantastique'' with reference to Hoffmann appears in the ''[[Dictionnaire de la langue française]]'' by Littré. | In 1863 the term ''fantastique'' with reference to Hoffmann appears in the ''[[Dictionnaire de la langue française]]'' by Littré. | ||
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| The ''Fantastique'' is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the [[impossible]]. There is often a good deal of fear involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not an essential component of ''fantastique''. | The ''Fantastique'' is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the [[impossible]]. There is often a good deal of fear involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not an essential component of ''fantastique''. | ||
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| - | == List of titles from the [[The Book of Fantasy]] collection== | ||
| - | |||
| - | * Introduction. [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] (begins page 9) | ||
| - | * "Sennin". [[Ryunosuke Akutagawa]], ''[[The Three Treasures]]'', 1951 (begins page 13) | ||
| - | ** This is a reworking of a Japanese [[Zen]] [[koan]]; the koan can be found in the collection ''[[Zen Flesh, Zen Bones]]''. | ||
| - | * "[[A Woman Alone with Her Soul|A Woman Alone with Her Soul]]". [[Thomas Bailey Aldrich]], 1912 <!-- this is possibly by Jorge Luís Borges --> (begins page 16) | ||
| - | * "Ben-Tobith". [[Leonid Andreyev]], from his ''[[The Crushed Flower and Other Stories]]''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5779] (begins page 17) | ||
| - | * "The Phantom Basket". [[John Aubrey]], ''Miscellanies''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4254], 1696 (begins page 20) | ||
| - | * "The Drowned Giant". [[J. G. Ballard]], ''[[The Terminal Beach]]'', London: Gollancz, 1964 (begins page 21) | ||
| - | * "[[Enoch Soames]]". [[Max Beerbohm]], ''[[The Century Magazine|The Century]]'' May ’16 (begins page 28) | ||
| - | * "The Tail of the Sphinx". [[Ambrose Bierce]], ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' January 14, 1893. Later included in Bierce's ''[[Fantastic Fables]]''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/374] (begins page 48) | ||
| - | * "The Squid in Its Own Ink". From ''[[El Lado de La Sombra]]'', 1962, Adolfo Bioy Casares; translated by [[Alexandra Potts]] (begins page 49) | ||
| - | * "Guilty Eyes". [[Ah‘med Ech Chiruani]] (no information besides the name is given about Chiruani. He is probably a pseudonym for one of the editors) (begins page 57) | ||
| - | * "Anything You Want!..." from ''[[Histoires Désobligeantes]]'' ("Disagreeable tales"), 1894, [[Léon Bloy]]; translated by Moira Banks, (begins page 58) | ||
| - | * "[[Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius]]". 1941, [[Jorge Luís Borges]], ''[[Labyrinths]]'', New Directions, 1962 (begins page 61) | ||
| - | * "Odin". Jorge Luís Borges & [[Delia Ingenieros]], (begins page 73) | ||
| - | * "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind"[http://raybradbury.ru/library/story/53/1/0/print/]. [[Ray Bradbury]], ''[[Epoch Win]]'' ’53. Also in Bradbury's ''[[The Golden Apples of the Sun]]'' (begins page 73) | ||
| - | * "The Man Who Collected the First of September, 1973". [[Tor Åge Bringsvaerd]]; translated by [[Oddrun Grønvik]], 1973 (begins page 77) | ||
| - | * "The Careless Rabbi". [[Martin Buber]]; translated by [[Olga Marx]], ''[[Tales of the Hasidin]]'', vol. 1, 1956 (begins page 81) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Tale and the Poet|The Tale of the Poet]]". [[Sir Richard Burton]] (begins page 81) | ||
| - | * "Fate Is a Fool". [[Arturo Cancela]], [[Pilar de Lusarreta]]; translated by [[Lucia Alvarez de Toledo]] & [[Alexandra Potts]] (begins page 82) | ||
| - | * "An Actual Authentic Ghost". From ''[[Sartor Resartus]]''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1051], [[Thomas Carlyle]], 1834 (begins page 92) | ||
| - | * "The Red King’s Dream". From ''[[Through the Looking Glass]]'', [[Lewis Carroll]], London: Macmillan, 1871 (begins page 92) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Trees of Pride/I|The Tree of Pride]]". [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''[[The Man Who Knew Too Much]]'', Cassell, 1922 (begins page 94) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Man Who Knew Too Much/Chapter IV|The Tower of Babel]]". G. K. Chesterton, ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'', Cassell, 1922 (begins page 95) | ||
| - | * "[[Zhuangzi#The butterfly dream|The Dream of the Butterfly]] or “Chuang Chu and the Butterfly”". [[Chuang Tzu]]; translated by [[Herbert A. Giles]], 1926 (begins page 95) | ||
| - | * "The Look of Death". From ''[[Le Grand Ecart]]'', [[Jean Cocteau]], 1923 (begins page 96) | ||
| - | * "[[House Taken Over]]". [[Julio Cortázar]], ''[[End of Game and Other Stories]]'', Random House, 1967 (begins page 96) | ||
| - | * "Being Dust". [[Santiago Dabove]], ''La Muerta y su Traje'', 1961 (begins page 100) | ||
| - | * "A Parable of Gluttony". From ''[[With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet]]'', [[Alexandra David-Neel]], 1931 (begins page 104) | ||
| - | * "The Persecution of the Master". From ''With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet'', Alexandra David-Neel, 1931 (begins page 105) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:A Dreamer's Tales#THE IDLE CITY|The Idle City]]". [[Lord Dunsany]], ''[[Saturday Review]]'' (UK) April 10 ’09 (begins page 106) | ||
| - | * "Tantalia". [[Macedonio Fernández]]; translated by [[Lucia Alvarez de Toledo]] & [[Alexandra Potts]] - (begins page 110) | ||
| - | * "Eternal Life"[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12261]. [[J. G. Frazer]] 1913; ''Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul'' (begins page 114) | ||
| - | * "A Secure Home". [[Elena Garro]] (begins page 115) | ||
| - | * "The Man Who Did Not Believe in Miracles". From ''Confucianism and Its Rivals'', [[Herbert A. Giles]], 1915 (begins page 123) | ||
| - | * "[[Earth’s Holocaust]]"[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/haw5810.txt]. [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], ''[[Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine]]'' May, 1844 (begins page 124) | ||
| - | * "Ending for a Ghost Story". [[I. A. Ireland]], 1919 (begins page 137) | ||
| - | <!-- "'How eerie!' said the girl, advancing cautiously. And what a heavy door!' She touched it as she poke and it suddenly swung to with a click.<br> 'Good Lord!' said the man, 'I don't believe there's a handle inside. Why, you've locked us both in!'<br>'Not both of us. Only one of us,' said the girl, and before his eyes she passed straight through the door, and vanished." --> | ||
| - | * "[[The Monkey's Paw]]". [[W. W. Jacobs]], ''[[Harper’s Monthly]]'', September ’02 (begins page 37) | ||
| - | * "What Is a Ghost?". From ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]], [[James Joyce]] 1921 (begins page 145) | ||
| - | * "May Goulding". From ''Ulysses''. James Joyce, 1921 (begins page 146) | ||
| - | * "The Wizard Passed Over". [[Juan Manuel, Duke of Penafiel|Don Juan Manuel]], ''[[Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio]]'', Allen Lane, 1970 (begins page 147) | ||
| - | * "[[Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk]]". March 1924, [[Franz Kafka]] (begins page 149) | ||
| - | * "[[Before the Law]]". Franz Kafka (begins page 160) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Return of Imray|The Return of Imray]]". [[Rudyard Kipling]], ''[[Mine Own People]]'' or ''[[Life's Handicap]]'', New York: Hurst & Co., 1891; EQMM Sep ’58 (begins page 162) | ||
| - | * "The Horses of Abdera". [[Leopoldo Lugones]]; ''[[Las Fuerzas Extranas]]'', Buenos Aires, 1906. (begins page 170) | ||
| - | * "The Ceremony". [[Arthur Machen]], ''Ornaments in Jade'', New York: A.A. Knopf, 1924 (begins page 175) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Riddle (Mare)|The Riddle]]". [[Walter de la Mare]], ''Monthly Review'' February ’03; ''The Riddle, and Other Stories'' (begins page 177) | ||
| - | * "[[Who Knows?]]". [[Guy de Maupassant]] April 6, 1890 (begins page 180) | ||
| - | * "The Shadow of the Players". From ''[[The Weekend Guide to Wales]]'', [[Edwin Morgan]] (begins page 190) | ||
| - | ** Based on ''[[wikisource:The Mabinogion/The Dream of Rhonabwy|The Dream of Rhonabwy]]'' of the ''[[Mabinogion]]'' | ||
| - | * "The Cat". [[H. A. Murena]] (begins page 910) | ||
| - | * "The Story of the Foxes". [[Niu Chiao]] (begins page 192) | ||
| - | * "The Atonement". [[Silvina Ocampo]], 1961 (begins page 193) | ||
| - | * "The Man Who Belonged to Me". [[Giovanni Papini]]; in ''[[Il Trangico Quoticliano]]'', 1906. (begins page 202) | ||
| - | * "Rani". [[Carlos Peralta]] (begins page 208) | ||
| - | * "The Blind Spot". [[Barry Perowne]], ''[[EQMM]]'' November ’45 (begins page 213) | ||
| - | * "The Wolf". From ''[[The Satyricon]]'', Rome, 60 CE. [[Petronius]] (begins page 222) | ||
| - | * "The Bust". [[Manuel Peyrou]] (begins page 224) | ||
| - | * "[[The Cask of Amontillado]]", [[Edgar Allan Poe]], ''[[Godey’s Lady’s Book]]'' November, 1846 (begins page 29) | ||
| - | * "The Tiger of Chao-ch’êng". From ''[[Liao Chai]]'', 1679, P’u Sung Ling. ''[[Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio]]'', De La Rue, 1880 (begins page 234) | ||
| - | * "How We Arrived at the Island of Tools". From ''[[Gargantua and Pantagruel]]''. [[François Rabelais]], 1564 (begins page 236) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:The Music on the Hill|The Music on the Hill]]". [[Saki]], ''[[The Chronicles of Clovis]]'', John Lane, 1911 (begins page 37) | ||
| - | * "Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched". [[May Sinclair]], ''[[The English Review]]'' Oct ’22 (begins page 241) | ||
| - | * "The Cloth Which Weaves Itself". From ''[[Malay Magic]]''. [[W. W. Skeat]], 1900 (begins page 256) | ||
| - | * "Universal History". From ''[[Star Maker]]'', [[Olaf Stapledon]], London: Methuen, 1937 (begins page 257) | ||
| - | * "[[A Theologian in Death]]". [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], ''[[Arcana coelestia]]'' (1794), Allen Lane, 1970 (begins page 257) | ||
| - | * "The Encounter". From the [[T’ang Dynasty]] (618-906 CE) (begins page 259) | ||
| - | * "The Three Hermits". [[Leo Tolstoy]], ''[[Twenty-Three Tales]]'' (begins page 260) | ||
| - | * "Macario". [[B. Traven]] ''[[The Night Visitor, and Other Stories]]'', 1966 (begins page 265) | ||
| - | * "The Infinite Dream of Pao-Yu". Ts’ao Chan (Hsueh Ch’in), ''[[The Dream of the Red Chamber]]'' (begins page 291) | ||
| - | * "The Mirror to Wind-and-Moon". [[Ts’ao Chan]] (Hsueh Ch’in), ''The Dream of the Red Chamber''(begins page 292) | ||
| - | * "The Desire to Be a Man". [[Villiers de l’Isle-Adam]] ''[[Contes cruels (Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam)|Contes Cruels]]'', 1883 (begins page 294) | ||
| - | * "Memnon, or Human Wisdom". [[Voltaire]], 1749; from ''Romances, Tales and Smaller Pieces of M. de Voltaire, Vol. 1'' 1794 (begins page 300) | ||
| - | * "The Man Who Liked Dickens". [[Evelyn Waugh]] ''[[Hearst’s International]]'' September ’33 (begins page 304) | ||
| - | * "Pomegranate Seed". [[Edith Wharton]], ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'', April 25 ’31 (begins page 315) | ||
| - | * "Lukundoo" 1907 [[Edward Lucas White]], ''[[Weird Tales]]'', November ’25 (begins page 336) | ||
| - | * "The Donguys". [[Juan Rudolfo Wilcock]] (begins page 346) | ||
| - | * "[[wikisource:Lord Arthur Savile's Crime|Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime]]". [[Oscar Wilde]], ''[[Court and Society Review]]'', May 11, 1887 (begins page 353) | ||
| - | * "The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge". [[Richard Wilhelm]]; translated by [[F. H. Martens]]; in ''Chinesische Volksmaerchen'', 1924 (begins page 376) | ||
| - | * "[[The Celestial Stag]]". G. Willoughby-Meade, ''[[Chinese Ghouls and Goblins]]'', Constable, 1928 (begins page 377) | ||
| - | * "[[Saved by the Book]]". [[G. Willoughby-Meade]], ''Chinese Ghouls and Goblins'', Constable, 1928 (begins page 377) | ||
| - | * "The Reanimated Englishman". [[Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley]], ''[[Roger Dodsworth]]'', 1826 (begins page 378) | ||
| - | * "The Sentence" from ''[[Journey to the West|Monkey]]'', 16th century, [[Wu Ch’Eng En]]; translated by [[Arthur Waley]], 1921 (begins page 379) | ||
| - | * "The Sorcerers". [[William Butler Yeats]], ''[[The Celtic Twilight]]'', Lawrence & Bullen, 1893 (begins page 380) | ||
| - | * "Fragment" from ''[[Don Juan Tenorio]]'', 1844, [[José Zorrilla]] (begins page 382) | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| *[[French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction ]] by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier | *[[French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction ]] by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier | ||
| - | *[[The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre]] | + | *''[[The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre]]'' (1970) by Todorov |
| - | *[[Itinéraires sémantiques : les avatars du mot "fantastique"]] by Jean-Louis Backès | + | ==Anthologies== |
| + | *''[[Demons of the Night]]'' (1995) by Joan C. Kessler | ||
| + | *''[[Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature]]'' (1984) by Alberto Manguel | ||
| + | *''[[La grande anthologie du fantastique - Tome 1 ]]'' (1996) | ||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| + | *[[Fabulation]] | ||
| + | *[[Fairy tale]] | ||
| *[[Fantasy]] | *[[Fantasy]] | ||
| + | *[[Fantasy literature]] | ||
| + | *[[Fantasy or fantastique?]]'' | ||
| *[[Fantastic art]] | *[[Fantastic art]] | ||
| - | *[[Science fiction]] | + | *[[Ghost story]] |
| - | *[[French literature]] | + | *[[Gothic fiction]] |
| - | *[[French science fiction]] | + | *[[Grotesque]] |
| - | *[[Gérard Lenne]] on le cinéma fantastique | + | *[[Leugenliteratuur]] |
| - | *[[List of writers of the "fantastique"]] | + | |
| *[[Midi Minuit Fantastique]] | *[[Midi Minuit Fantastique]] | ||
| - | *[[Fantastic literature]] | + | *[[Psychological horror]] |
| - | *[[Marabout Fantastique ]] | + | *[[Science fiction]] |
| + | *[[Supernatural fiction]] | ||
| + | *[[Unreliable narrator]] | ||
| + | *[[Weird fiction]] | ||
| + | |||
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| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
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"Why can't I get enough of your weird fantastic pages, you cheeky master!"--"Jaques Callot" in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann "The metaphysicians of Tlön do not seek for the truth or even for verisimilitude, but rather for the astounding. They judge that metaphysics is a branch of fantastic literature." --"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Borges ""Schalken" conforms more strictly to my own ideals. It is indeed one of the best of Le Fanu's good things."--introduction to Ghosts and Marvels (1924) by M. R. James |
Illustration: Screenshot from A Trip to the Moon (1902) by Georges Méliès
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The fantastique is a term for a literary and cinematic genre of fiction, the parent category of which is speculative fiction.
Authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Charles Nodier, Honoré de Balzac, Prosper Mérimée, Gérard de Nerval, Théophile Gautier, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar have been put in this category.
The term entered the French language via Walter Scott who in "On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition" (1827), his assessment of the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, uses the term fantastic to refer to a "mode of writing, in which the most wild and unbounded license is given to an irregular fancy", a sensibility Scott most readily perceives in the work of Hoffmann.
This essay was translated into French as "Sur Hoffmann et les compositions fantastiques" (1832) by François-Adolphe Loève-Veimars upon which the notion of the fantastique was further entrenched in French. But even before that Charles Nodier had written the critical piece "Du fantastique en littérature" (1830), the first text to trace the fantastique sensibility retro-actively.
In 1863 the term fantastique with reference to Hoffmann appears in the Dictionnaire de la langue française by Littré.
In 1940 The Book of Fantasy, an anthology curated by Borges, Casares, and Ocampo, is released in Spanish.
Roger Caillois's defines the fantastique in Au cœur du fantastique (1965) as "always a break in the acknowledged order, an irruption of the inadmissible within the changeless everyday legality" (tr. Richard Howard).
The term was particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s; with the magazine Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962-1970) and the book series Marabout Fantastique (1969 - 1977).
When Todorov publishes The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1970), he sets somewhat of a standard in the historiography of the genre.
Contents |
[edit]
Definition
What is distinctive about the fantastique is the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative. It evokes phenomena which are not only left unexplained but which are inexplicable from the reader's point of view. In this respect, the fantastique is somewhere between fantasy, where the supernatural is accepted and entirely reasonable in the imaginary world of a non-realist narrative, and magic realism, where apparently supernatural phenomena are explained and accepted as normal. Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers, unwilling to accept the supernatural events that occur. This refusal may be mixed with doubt, disbelief, fear, or some combination of those reactions.
Literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov contends that the fantastique is defined by its hesitation between accepting the supernatural as such and trying to rationally explain the phenomena it describes. In that case, the fantastique is nothing more than a transitional area on a spectrum from magic realism to fantasy.
Fantastique literature is often erroneously considered close to science fiction. However, there is an important difference between the two: science fiction is situated in a different time and place than the reader, and irrational seeming events are actually held to be rational in the framework of future or perhaps alien science and technology.
The Fantastique is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the impossible. There is often a good deal of fear involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not an essential component of fantastique.
[edit]
References
- French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier
- The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1970) by Todorov
[edit]
Anthologies
- Demons of the Night (1995) by Joan C. Kessler
- Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature (1984) by Alberto Manguel
- La grande anthologie du fantastique - Tome 1 (1996)
[edit]
See also
- Fabulation
- Fairy tale
- Fantasy
- Fantasy literature
- Fantasy or fantastique?
- Fantastic art
- Ghost story
- Gothic fiction
- Grotesque
- Leugenliteratuur
- Midi Minuit Fantastique
- Psychological horror
- Science fiction
- Supernatural fiction
- Unreliable narrator
- Weird fiction
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Fantastique" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
