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
Subject(s): Cultural Essay
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
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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