CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS OF THE FANTASTIC: THE UNCANNY AND THE MARVELOUS
CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS OF THE FANTASTIC: THE UNCANNY AND THE MARVELOUS

Summary/Abstract: The first Anthology of Romanian fantasy prose, The Mask. Fantastic Romanian prose, written by the critic Alexandru George, appeared at Minerva Publishing House, Bucharest, in 1982; the analysis of this paper aims at defining, genesis and functions of the concept of fantastic, by identifying its dual meanings. According to Tzvetan Todorov, in the study Introduction to Fantastic Literature, there are obvious delimitations between the concepts of the uncanny and the marvelous, since the latter is associated with divine revelation and enlightenment, as opposed to the first, associated with the inner crisis of the being, who takes part in the fantastic act. In the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, the definitions of the terms uncanny and marvelous refer to overcoming the boundaries, the limits of reality (the concept of uncanny) and manifestation through a sensational, atypical, perfect fact (the concept of marvelous). Both terms refer to the unreal or the supernatural, and are exceptions to the ontological plan. The uncanny and the marvelous are close genres of the fantastic, although the perception of existence is realized differently: the first is associated with the bizarre, while the latter induces a state of balance, of solving the crisis situation. Identifying of the uncanny can be achieved through a logical, rational explanation, therefore it is all about the supernatural partially revealed and received while the uncanny transposes the character into a state of confusion, terror and horror, the marvelous is perceived as a form of rebalancing the damaged consciousness, bringing the reader's perception to an outdated dimension of existence, by adopting beneficial attributes. The marvelous is expressed by the nature and substance of events, similar to humans.

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