Littératures de l’imaginaire
Literature of the Imaginary
Author(s): Katarzyna Gadomska, Agnieszka Loska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Series: Studia literackie
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3744-9
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3743-2
- Page Count: 258
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: French
Éléments science‑fictionnesques dans La Pièce d’or de Ken Bugul
Éléments science‑fictionnesques dans La Pièce d’or de Ken Bugul
(Elements of Science Fiction in Ken Bugul’s La Pièce d’or)
- Author(s):Anna Swoboda
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:13-24
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Ken Bugul; Senegal; science fiction; marvelous; supernatural;
- Summary/Abstract:Ken Bugul is a Senegalese writer; widely acclaimed for her semiautobiographical novels; where she uses writing as a form of auto‑ therapy. However; in La Piece d’or; published in 2006; the reader is surprised to find supernatural elements that can be interpreted as science fiction. The author paints a striking picture of the African society after the sixties; torn apart by corruption; violence; urbanization and lack of perspectives. This dystopian universe is threatened by an asteroid; which can only be stopped with the use of a gold coin. The purpose of this article is to analyze three elements of science fiction in the novel: the title objet; the mythical creature and the alien. It aims to show how the author blends science fiction with African tradition in order to remind the reader of the need for solidarity and return to traditional values. The study is based; among others; on the works of Gilbert Millet and Denis Labbe; Katarzyna Gadomska; Isaac V. Joslin and Alison Rice.
- Price: 4.50 €
L’espace sacré (profané) dans La Meute de Serge Brussolo comme figure spatiale caractéristique du roman gothique
L’espace sacré (profané) dans La Meute de Serge Brussolo comme figure spatiale caractéristique du roman gothique
(The (Profane) Sacred Space in La Meute by Serge Brussolo as Spatial Figure Characteristic of the Gothic Novel)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Bogusławska
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:25-49
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:sacred space; desecration; archaic mother; neo‑Gothic; Serge Brussolo;
- Summary/Abstract:This article aims to study space presented in the neo‑Gothic novel La Meute by Serge Brussolo as an example of the desecrated sacred space; a spatial figure characteristic of the Gothic novel; present in the genre from its beginnings. In La Meute; Serge Brussolo refers to the cult of the archaic mother associated with nature; embodying excessive and uncontrolled violence that arises in the middle of the modern metropolis. The Mondescos’ house; located in the center of a big city; appears as a temple of pagan idols depicting terrible and merciless animals which demand human sacrifices to compensate for endured desecration. The sacredness of the house is reinforced by the presence of a room where a statue of its former owner receives a kind of veneration. The sacred becomes affected by the violation; whereas the statue is destroyed at the end of the text in a desecrating act.
- Price: 4.50 €
L’urban fantasy à la française: le cas de Rebecca Kean de Cassandra O’Donnell
L’urban fantasy à la française: le cas de Rebecca Kean de Cassandra O’Donnell
(French Urban Fantasy: the Case of Cassandra O’Donnell’s Rebecca Kean)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Loska
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:50-62
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:urban fantasy; urban hunter; Rebecca Kean; Cassandra O’Donnell;
- Summary/Abstract:Nowadays, urban fantasy has become one of the most popular subgenres of fantasy. In contemporary urban fantasy, the city is a place where the real world and the supernatural interfere. Their coexistence catalyzes several struggles and only the female protagonist, who becomes an urban hunter, is able to overcome these urban problems. The complexity of relation between her and the city gives an opportunity to present typical urban issues of contemporary city dwellers. The aim of the present article is to reveal those two constitutive elements, the city and the female protagonist, as well as their role and importance in Cassandra O’Donnell’s French series Rebecca Kean.
- Price: 4.50 €
De Tolkien à Rowling: la tentation de l’invisibilité
De Tolkien à Rowling: la tentation de l’invisibilité
(From Tolkien to Rowling: the Temptation of Invisibility)
- Author(s):Éric Auriacombe
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:63-72
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:Tolkien; Frodo; Rowling; Harry Potter; invisibility; pain; death;
- Summary/Abstract:The question of invisibility is a common thread shared by J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, not only because it appears explicitly in their two fictional works, namely The Hobbit (or The Lord of the Rings) and the Harry Potter book series, but also because it can be related to the two heroes’ personalities and families, as well as to the political context of the time they were written. It is a matter of specifying how the authors use invisibility in their respective works’ dynamics and what that means. I propose a nuanced answer highlighting the similarities, but also the differences between the two works. Heroes find themselves in a struggle against the incarnation of Evil. Both of them also make sacrifices in order to figth it.
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Vampires et sorcières: trois femmes puissantes dans la littérature francophone
Vampires et sorcières: trois femmes puissantes dans la littérature francophone
(Vampires and Witches: Three Powerful Women in Francophone Literature)
- Author(s):Maria Cristina Batalha
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:73-94
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:witches; evil; fantastic literature; wonderful Realism;
- Summary/Abstract:This paper aims to analyse the novels Heloise (1980); by Anne Hebert; Moi; Tituba sorciere… Noire de Salem (1986); by Maryse Conde; and La sorciere (1996); by Marie NDiaye; to present three female characters endowed with supernatural powers. On one hand; we see a vampire who exhibits the crack of human psychology; namely the double essence of the world; shared between Good and Evil. On the other hand; there is Tituba; who uses magic as the last anchor of an identity built on the black diaspora; and as a space of freedom that allows the realization of the most primitive desires; where a collective past is released. Finally; there is Lucie; a failed modern witch; whose powers serve to exhibit the nonsense of reality.
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« Lettre à une ombre chère »…: les dark romances en héritage ?
« Lettre à une ombre chère »…: les dark romances en héritage ?
(“Letter to a beloved shadow”…: Dark Romances in Heritance?)
- Author(s):Isabelle Rachel Casta
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:95-114
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:dark fantasy; hybridization; love object; metamorphosis; violent passion;
- Summary/Abstract:The genres of the imaginary multiply according to two models: genealogy or hybridization; some themes; or engrams; combine the paths of the two trials by combining the legacy of black romanticism; and the mythical embroidery of dark fantasy... Bit‑ lit reclaims and recycles; for example; the great universals of L’Amour and the West; while creating the more and more distinct star‑ crossed lovers – most often characterized by their vampiric nature.Indeed; American fantasy writes about a couple’s dance by following two totally opposite narrative regimes: all that is addressed to the youth is romantic; chaste; marked by beautiful and strong feelings; everything for adults is much rawer; with a rather explosive mix of kitsch and trash; characteristic of mass‑produced steamy novels; which shares the readership market with the holders of a very strong sentimental conventionalism. By analyzing some great vampire series; and some novels rich in “gaslight romance”; I aim to show how the recent stereotypical “gritty” changes by introducing a skillful mix of yesterday’s techniques; transposed into today’s perspective.
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Stades imaginaires de Barbe bleue par Amélie Nothomb
Stades imaginaires de Barbe bleue par Amélie Nothomb
(Stages of the Imaginary in Barbe bleue by Amélie Nothomb)
- Author(s):Hans Färnlöf
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:115-127
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Amelie Nothomb; Barbe bleue; imaginary; writing; re-writing; Sartre;
- Summary/Abstract:This study explores the notion of the imaginary in Barbe bleue by Nothomb in two complementary ways. Sartre’s phenomenological vision of the imaginary constitutes the methodological fundament for exploring initially the condition for the imaginary to occur. As an act of the individual consciousness to be comprehended by others, the imaginary requires the activation of a common field of reference directed towards the object of representation. It is suggested that this faculty could be described as a conceptual framing of the object. The specific thematic of the imaginary in the narrative (i.e. creation, idealisation, alchemy, liberation, transformation) is then linked to this framing as well as to the discursive mode which structures the story, a mode based on plausible actions taking place in a coherent, contemporary society. The imaginative writing of Nothomb is seen partly as the consequence of this latter choice of composition, with the need to introduce new motifs and to rationally justify the actions, partly as her proper creation of cunning stylistics, which generates the reader’s hermeneutic activity and even engenders the risk of creating an imaginary interpretation of her texts.
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Usages mémoriels et politiques de la figure du zombie dans Le ciel de Bay City de Catherine Mavrikakis et La nuit des Juifs‑vivants d’Igor Ostachowicz
Usages mémoriels et politiques de la figure du zombie dans Le ciel de Bay City de Catherine Mavrikakis et La nuit des Juifs‑vivants d’Igor Ostachowicz
(Zombies in Catherine Mavrikakis’ Le ciel de Bay City and Igor Ostachowicz’s Night of the Living Jews: Political and Memorial Significance)
- Author(s):Jessy Neau
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:128-141
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Zombies; Holocaust fiction; ruins; Warsaw; Americana; Polish literature; Quebec literature;
- Summary/Abstract:This paper aims to shed light on the various uses made of the zombie to evoke contemporary memory of the Holocaust in two novels published in Quebec and Poland: Mavrikakis’ Le ciel de Bay City; (2008) and Igor Ostachowicz’ Night of the Living‑Jews; (2012). In these two works; zombies are linked with what Giorgio Agamben has called “bare life” of death camp prisoners and survivors; but they also establish a connection between both past and present catastrophes; as well as urban or suburban spaces in which they are deployed. The borrowing of a figure coming largely from pop culture composes an interesting scheme to represent the impossible mourning in contemporary imaginary.
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L’uchronie, antécédents et évolutions
L’uchronie, antécédents et évolutions
(Uchronia, Antecedents and Evolutions)
- Author(s):Mohamed Anis Abrougui
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:142-151
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:uchronia; utopia; historical novel; romanticism;
- Summary/Abstract:The purpose of this article is to study uchronia as a literary genre. I propose to take criticism one century back and to put aside the considerations of research on this genre in its current state. Uchronia is a genre of the nineteenth century, whose antecedents are: utopia, the historical novel, and the romanticism movement. The twentieth‑ century’s uchronia is in fact only a splintering of the “original” genre into three streams: the science fiction and especially the steampunk, a historicizing current, which has become a controversial discipline among historians, known as the counterfactual history, and finally the pure “literary” uchronias.
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Langues construites et mondes imaginaires: du vice secret aux productions hollywoodiennes
Langues construites et mondes imaginaires: du vice secret aux productions hollywoodiennes
(Constructed Languages and Imaginary Worlds: from a Secret Vice to Hollywood Productions)
- Author(s):Marine Verriest
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:152-166
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:constructed languages; conlangs; imaginary worlds; Tolkien; Elvish languages;
- Summary/Abstract:Constructed languages are increasingly common in imaginary fictions. Creating languages was considered in Tolkien’s time as a simple hobby or even a secret vice, and now tends to be more democratic, but also a marketing product.
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La coprésence du réel et de l’imaginaire dans Les Enchantements d’Ambremer de Pierre Pevel
La coprésence du réel et de l’imaginaire dans Les Enchantements d’Ambremer de Pierre Pevel
(The Co‑presence of the Real and the Imaginary in Les Enchantements d’Ambremer by Pierre Pevel)
- Author(s):Ewa Drab
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:167-180
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:French fantasy; magical worlds; reality vs. imagination; Pierre Pevel;
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of the present study is to understand the particular relation between the real and the imaginary in Pierre Pevel’s novel Les Enchantements d’Ambremer by analyzing how these two separate modes interact and contribute to the creation of a unique fantasy universe. The author, an important figure of French fantasy literature, has shown predilection for combining history and fancy multiple times also in his other series, such as La trilogie de Wielstadt, in which the Thirty Years’ War is reimagined in the context of a fantasy story. The same model appears in Le Paris de Merveilles, another trilogy incorporating elements of the real in the framework of a fantasy narrative. The structure of the presented world may be interpreted as being composed of several layers or sets, whereby each contributes to the construction of one cohesive universe. The traces of extra‑ literary reality provide the reader with the point of departure and make the fantasy world more familiar. They also constitute the basis for modifications allowing another version of the city of Paris to be born. This alternative French capital is deeply influenced by the neighboring land of magic, inhabited by fairies, gnomes and other fantastic creatures, thus constituting the other extreme as opposed to the references to reality.
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Multiformité des impensables et des imaginaires fictionnels: L’exemple du fantastique japonais
Multiformité des impensables et des imaginaires fictionnels: L’exemple du fantastique japonais
(Multiformity of the Unthinkable, Diversity of the Fictional Imaginaries: the Example of the Japanese Fantastic)
- Author(s):Denis Moreau
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:181-196
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Japanese fantastic; supernatural; J‑Horror; fictional territory; Haruki Murakami;
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this article is to study and question the specifics of the Japanese fantastic in literature and cinema; through the prism of the socio‑historical context and the literary evolution (by considering; for example; the assimilation of Western influences on modern Japanese culture and the blend of folkloric imagery and modernity). The fantastic in Japanese literature develops an atmosphere of otherness and strangeness; a representation of the empirical reality that creates a liminal world; where the supernatural becomes almost commonplace and acceptable; as can be seen in Haruki Murakami’s fiction. This brings to another aim of this study; which is to look the Japanese attitude toward the “real”; insofar as this monistic attitude is markedly different from the dualistic conception of the world in force in Western countries. Since the supernatural is omnipresent throughout Japanese culture and society; the Japanese fantastic is not based on traumatic events whose anxiogenic character creates fear. This leads us directly to the question of the particular fictional space identified in the Japanese fantastic.
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La littérature de l’imaginaire pour jeunes-adultes au prisme de la réception française
La littérature de l’imaginaire pour jeunes-adultes au prisme de la réception française
(Young Adult Literature of the Imaginary from the Perspective of French Reception)
- Author(s):Ofra Lévy
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:197-211
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:young adult’s literature; genetic categories; hybrid literary genres; fantastic; fantasy; dystopia; science fiction; french reception; 20th‑21st century; contemporary literature; best‑sellers; Anglo‑A
- Summary/Abstract:Since the end of the 20th century; the phenomenon of young adult imaginary literature – originated in the Anglo‑American world – has spread to France; resulting in the creation of a new literary category. Thanks to translations of bestsellers such as The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman or Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling; this literature established itself an important place in French publishing industry. Nevertheless; it is clear that this literary category often escapes a strict and unanimous typology; especially since the generic categories differ according to cultural areas. Therefore; this study will aim to reveal the characteristic of this vaguely defined literature; in order to determine the elements of its definition through the prism of French reception.
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Les savoirs politiques de l’imaginaire
Les savoirs politiques de l’imaginaire
(The Political Knowledge of the Imaginary)
- Author(s):Sébastien Wit
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:212-225
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:animal; fable; fantasy; La Fontaine; Brian Jacques;
- Summary/Abstract:In many ways; it may seem redundant to speak about “literatures of the imagination”. Is literature not necessarily a product of what philosophy calls creative imagination? Can we say that some literary works are more “of the imagination” than others? In this comparative paper; I study the way animals are anthropomorphised in Redwall; an animal fantasy series written by Brian Jacques; and in Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables. Indeed; those two fictional works share a common core: they belong to animal literature. Thus; the objective is to determine if Redwall is really more “of the imagination” than the famous fables of the 17th century.
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D’Archie’s Mad House à Netflix: les avatars de Sabrina, l’apprentie sorcière, miroirs déformants de la culture populaire adolescente et jeune adulte
D’Archie’s Mad House à Netflix: les avatars de Sabrina, l’apprentie sorcière, miroirs déformants de la culture populaire adolescente et jeune adulte
(From Archie’s Mad World to Netflix: the Avatars of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Distorting Mirrors of Teenage and Young Adult Pop Culture)
- Author(s):Mathieu Pierre
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:226-240
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Sabrina; Netflix; Comics; fantasy; witches; sorcery; television series;
- Summary/Abstract:In 2018; the entertainment platform Netflix released its new series: Chilling adventures of Sabrina; which is a contemporary and horrifying adaptation of an American 1960s comic book. The purpose of this article is to study why this character is so often taken over and the changes that she has gone through the decades.
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L’art de la fugue dans la littérature dramatique pour la jeunesse: le lecteur au pays du fantastique, du merveilleux et de l’étrange
L’art de la fugue dans la littérature dramatique pour la jeunesse: le lecteur au pays du fantastique, du merveilleux et de l’étrange
(Art of Fugue in Dramatic Literature for the Young: the Reader at the Land of Fantastic, Marvellous and Uncanny)
- Author(s):Laurianne Perzo
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Cultural Essay
- Page Range:241-256
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:theatre; childhood; young reader; reception; fiction; fantastic literature; society; detour; grow up;
- Summary/Abstract:French theatre for young people has had an increasing repertoire which explores children’s relationship with the world in an ethic and aesthetic context. It also questions the message transmission from the author to the young addressee. The author takes responsibility of his texts; offering a broad perspective of the world. On one hand; he confronts the young audience with major social issues; while on the other hand; he wants to assert the sanctity of childhood. Several detours are used to enable them to understand the world and its complexity. The registers of the fantastic; the wondrous and the strange are a part of this project. Indeed; it is a possible way to present another reality to face the real world. But this process poses a major obstacle to the reception of the young reader. This article also aims to analyze and criticize the several aspects of running away – when children characters leave their lives and the sad reality to take refuge in a new world – in dramatic literature for young people.
- Price: 4.50 €
