The Fantastic in France and Russia in the

Hesitation between a natural or supernatural interpretation of fictional events is the life-blood of the fantastic, but just how is this hesitation provoked? In this detailed and insightful study, Claire Whitehead uses examples from nineteenth-century French and Russian literature to provide a range of narrative and syntactic answers to this question. A close reading of eight key works by Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Odoevskii, Nikolai Gogol, Fedor Dostoevskii, Théophile Gautier, Prosper Mérimée and Guy de Maupassant illustrates the decisive role played in the provocation of ambiguity by factors such as modalization, point of view, multiple voice and narrative authority. The analysis of hesitation experienced in works depicting madness or ironic self-consciousness advocates the inclusion into the genre of previously marginalized texts. The close comparison of works from these two national traditions shows that the fundamental discursive features of the fantastic do not belong to any one language.

Acknowledgements

ix

Abbreviations

x

Introduction

1

(12)

Reliability and Shifting Perspectives: Hesitation in Heterodiegesis

13

(27)

Introduction

13

(3)

Part 1: Realist Borrowings in the Fantastic

16

(4)

Part 2: Narrative Authority and the Fantastic

20

(5)

Part 3: Hesitation and the Heterodiegetic Voice

25

(15)

Personality and Multiple Voice: Hesitation in Homodiegesis

40

(38)

Introduction

40

(3)

Part 1: Hesitating Syntax in the Homodiegetic Context

43

(4)

Part 2: The Role of Narrator Personality

47

(17)

Part 3: Narrative Levels and Relative Authority

64

(14)

Madness and Narrative Disintegration: Hesitation and Coherence

78

(42)

Introduction

78

(3)

Part 1: Unstable Openings

81

(10)

Part 2: Homodiegetic Disintegration in Le Horla

91

(14)

Part 3: Heterodiegetic Incoherence in The Double

105

(15)

Narrative Play and Generic Disruption: Hesitation and Self-Consciousness

120

(34)

Introduction

120

(3)

Part 1: Early Departures from Generic Conventions

123

(7)

Part 2: Ironic Exploitation of Generic Models

130

(14)

Part 3: Problematizing the Status of the Discourse

144

(10)

Conclusion

154

(5)

Bibliography

159

(8)

Index

167

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The Fantastic in France and Russia in the 19th Century: In Pursuit of Hesitation

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