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Le surnaturel dans le Jeu des Trônes: À propos de Jon Snow*

Author(s): Éric Auriacombe / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

At first glance, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is not supernatural. Suddenly, surprising and unpredictable events occur which also take the readers / spectators by surprise: the dragon eggs hatch, the Gods seem to act, the dead revive and they attack the living. I propose to note that events of fantastic appearance erupt in the reality of the series to reveal strangeness, as well as to discover a wonderful universe at the origin of History. Jon Snow believes that he defends the Wall, but he must first fight the undead, kill his paternal substitute, make friends with different forms of life (giants), die and resurrect, discovering the existence of the White Walkers and their universe: A Song of Ice and Fire.

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The Fantastic Variations of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

Author(s): Ewa Drab / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

With the characteristics typical of postmodernist fiction, the novels written by Neil Gaiman, a British author of the imaginary, represent a contemporary perception of the imaginative literatures, regarded through the prism of hybridization. In consequence, in Gaiman’s work, different poetics and conventions, such as the fantastic and the marvelous, are combined to reveal various depictions of the supernatural. As a result, in order to examine the author’s style, it is necessary to ponder on the influence of the postmodernist on the choice of the genre. Furthermore, the analysis of the most important manifestations of the supernatural in Gaiman’s astounding novel American Gods (2001) should be preceded by a short introduction to the understanding of the terms “the fantastic” and “the marvelous.”

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The Supernatural and the Monstrous-Feminine in Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black

Author(s): Olga Glebova / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black (1983) is an example of neo-Victorian Gothic, a popular genre which reflects the contemporary fascination with the irrational and the monstrous. In The Woman in Black the supernatural horror is represented by the female monster, or the monstrous-feminine, which takes the form of a revengeful spectral woman. Hill’s novel reveals the gaps and silences in the stories of Victorian women and uses the monstrous-feminine as a powerful metaphor to portray the situation of “unwed mothers,” stigmatized and ostracized in Victorian times. Moreover, the figure of the female monster offers a possibility to explore the psychological implications of a mother’s traumatic separation from her child and to highlight the contemporary relevance of the concerns expressed in Hill’s novel.

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L’espace anxiogène dans La Meute de Serge Brussolo sur l’exemple de la figure de la demeure noire

Author(s): Aleksandra Bogusławska / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

The aim of this article is to analyze the space presented in Serge Brussolo’s novel La Meute (1990) as an example of anxiogenic space with a specific emphasis put on its multiple attributes related to the black dwelling (fr. demeure noire), a characteristic figure developed by the horror fiction genre. The sensation of fear is obtained through the attribution to the space of the house of the protagonist the anxiogenic features already present in the first texts of the genre initiated by Horace Walpole, namely the gothic novel, such as: the atmosphere of hostility, the connection with a macabre past, the relationship with death, the isolation of civilization, enclosed space. In La Meute, there are also references to the innovative features characterizing the neogothic space. Thus, by choosing the location of the haunted house in the Parisian metropolis, Serge Brussolo resorts to the topos of the giant city, representing a daily and banal space becoming the scene of violent events, inexplicable by the laws of terrestrial reality. Space attracts the characters and exerts an evil influence on their spirits generating a relationship of submission and mental dependence. Thus presented, linking traditional and innovative traits the space in Serge Brussolo’s La Meute represents an anxiogenic space par excellence.

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Magic is the New Black: Gothic Tradition, Cross-Dressing, and Pulp Fiction

Author(s): Fabrizio Foni / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Marjorie Bowen’s Black Magic is far from being a literary masterpiece. And yet, this novel, which was quite popular at the time, deserves to be investigated in the light of a rich supernatural-related tradition, ranging from folklore to the most famous Gothic novels. Its ending enables us to analyse the supernatural as a metaliterary projection of the author herself.

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L’ambiguïté du surnaturel dans la série télévisée fantastique

Author(s): Mathieu Pierre / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

On the example of contemporary American fantasy series, this article aims to show that the question of the supernatural assumes an ambiguous form, which is always more difficult to define and to circumscribe, as there are iterations on its themes. Moreover, we shall see that these series undermine the principles of the fantastic, as defined by Todorov.

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« Celui qui inquiète le voir… ». Un dispositif de l’ombre: autour des Revenants

Author(s): Isabelle Rachel Casta / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

A spectre who returns to make his wife pregnant… A little boy who has been dead for thirty years (or more), emerging in the night to trot behind a lost and lonely young nurse… A waitress, murdered several times, but still alert and seductive… In Les Revenants, French series by Fabrice Gobert, the cohorts of sorrowful ghosts cross paths for a moment, but the two journeys will not continue together, as each one unwittingly or unknowingly goes his own dark way again. Meanwhile, apartments are invaded by flies, rot, cockroaches – a silent infestation of signs of corruption, in the decor and in the body. The intensity of strangeness is reinforced here with the choice of a young phantom, Victor/Louis Levanski, as an icon: his black eyes, extremely disturbing frozen features and unsettling paleness highlight the cover of the best-seller inspired by the series. Therefore, it seems interesting to scrutinize what in the choice of filming and chromatic palette establishes this new kind of the supernatural.

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Le surnaturel: une esthétique du regard impliqué (Dracula à la scène et à l’écran)

Author(s): Florence Fix / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

From Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) to the recent invasion by vampires of cinema and television series, a major change has occurred: once unclear and subject to doubt as to their appearance, supernatural beings and activities have become spectacular, visible by all, even if not always comprehensible by all viewers. Therefore, vampires as supernatural characters are still subject to scrutiny, but the questions they raise are not about their doubtful look or appearance, but about the desire, envy and jealousy they generate. Moreover, their hunter, once accepted as a scientist determined to eradicate them, is now being questioned: looking at extraordinary things, animals or creatures is not only a matter of knowing but of domination and control.

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La figure de l’enfant monstrueux et le surnaturel dans le romanesque d’Anne Duguël

Author(s): Agnieszka Loska / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

Although we always tend to perceive children as pure and innocent beings, fantastic literature aims to break with their idealized image by presenting them as a corrupted sadists who feed on their victims’ fear and suffering. L’asile de la mariée and Mon âme est une porcherie are two novels by Anne Duguël, a contemporary Belgian francophone author of fantastic literature, in which, by introducing the supernatural elements, she depicts two children who commit ferocious acts. The aim of the article is to present and characterize these cruel children in order to examine the origins of the evil that has invaded them and the causes of their thirst of blood forcing them to commit several abominable crimes.

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Ghosts in the Machine: Supernatural Dread vs. Technology in the Brazilian Erotic Horror Thriller Excitação (1976)

Author(s): Tiago Monteiro / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Excitaçao (1976) is a Brazilian feature film which tells the story of Helena, a mentally disturbed woman married to Renato, an ambitious software engineer. While recovering from a recent trauma and left alone by Renato in a house by the sea, where the former owner, Paulo, committed suicide, Helena gradually descends into madness when several electronic devices start to acquire a life of their own. This paper aims to discuss the relevance of Jean Garrett’s auvre to the constitution of a “cinematic Brazilian Gothic,” which borrowed elements from both contemporary Hollywood and European genre films as well as rewrote them from an ambivalent perspective, due to the working-class and conservative background from which producers, filmmakers, and the audience came. Therefore, through an analysis of Excitaçao’s plot, main characters, and Gothic atmosphere, I intend to place the film not only in the context of Brazilian horror cinema, but also as the embodiment of a multi-layered process of social and cultural changes.

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L’usage du surnaturel chez Perrault et chez les Grimm

Author(s): Pierre-Emmanuel Moog / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

In fairy tales, supernatural events usually do not disturb characters. However, the poetics of the genre still needs to address how it introduces such events to readers. A thorough comparison of similar tales by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm reveals opposite uses. The classic French tales actually contain very little supernatural, with few agents of magic, and whenever magic is used, it is clearly delineated. The German romantic tales intertwine the real world and the supernatural one, blurring the lines between them. As a result, the poetics of the tales by the Brothers Grimm relies on the supernatural to redress the real world and attain immanent justice in a moral universe, whereas the limited use of the supernatural in Perrault’s tales, while stressing the verisimilitude of the situations overall, allows for the acceleration of the narration and a focus on what is truly at stake in these stories.

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La problématique identitaire au prisme du fantastique dans Alice au pays des merveilles

Author(s): Sonia Dosoruth / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

This paper will examine the representation of identity through the prism of fantasy in the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in its French version namely Alice au pays des merveilles (the 2010 edition) and the film Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton (2010). We shall depict the background of the Victorian era which might have had a direct influence on the author. That should allow us to portray the intrinsic aspects which characterise the writing of the book. Lewis, being a mathematician, has also slipped into his book a numerous amount of examples related to the realm of mathematics precisely through algebraic lessons. This element surely brings into light the fantasy approach of the book like the strangeness of animals Alice comes to meet. It also sheds light on issues that Alice will have to face, including that which allows her to reflect on her identity. However the lavish interpretation (to be understood in its positive sense here) given to the book has been the film by Tim Burton in 2010. Burton, through specific technical effects like the numerical Dalsa camera which greatly helps to double The Queen of Heart’s head, also uses a green background for most parts of the film with computer-generated imagery (CGI). The technical approach gives a real sense of fantasy to the film and the identity of the then grown-up Alice is awakened. It soars to give her much prowess to come to terms with the Jabberwocky, the enemy she only can kill through the use of the vorpal sword according to the Oraculum, the illustrated scroll that tells the past, present and future in the Underland.

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Territoires du surnaturel: l’espace de l’aventure à la fin du XIXe siècle

Author(s): Paul Faggianelli Brocart / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

This article focuses on the spatial translation of the literary categories of the supernatural, within the imperial hierarchy that divides territories between center and margins. Through a group of adventure novels from the 19th century, going from Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, to Rosny, we will focus on how the supernatural can ben encoded in a spatial representation, and how the distortion triggered by the supernatural can be domesticated through the scientific apparatus.

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Il était une fois au pays (dés)enchanté: le merveilleux inquiétant chez Gaétan Soucy

Author(s): Vicky Montambault / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

Within the framework of this article, we interrogate nature and function of the supernatural in the imaginary of Music-Hall !, (2002) a book of Gaétan Soucy. The notion of the wonderful of Soucy’s universe provokes a discomfort: he worries more than amazes. He inscribes under the sign the overthrow, the tale draws a world of (dis) enchantment. Firstly, traditional initiatory space represented by the forest inverted and moved to the city. This strategy influences the relation between nature/culture which becomes ambiguous. On the other and, certain figures relate to the universe fairy tales inverse double of certain characters, like Pinocchio. This intertextual strategy underlines the difficulties of adaptation of the protagonist in a modern world in constant change, a world where they feel stranger.

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L’Olympe des Infortunes, au-delà de la Fable

Author(s): Zineb Ouled Ali / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

Yasmina Khadra, the Algerian writer of French expression, plunges us, in his novel, L’Olympus of misfortunes, into a universe close to the fable where he offers us puppets, without any social or geographical identification. The vices and virtues, despairs and aspirations of modern man. Living from the waste of the city, in their world of Horr, these characters rejoice in their solitudes, exposing themselves to the sea, and taming the rocks. So many symbols, allusions, myths … are superimposed in this romantic universe of Yasmina Khadra, drawing from the repertoire of the fable, transmitting a disoriented word with a light tone but concealing a permanent questioning on the legitimacy of the “Act of literary writing as a moment of reflection on the human condition”. Reflections that we will try to reveal throughout our analysis of the stakes of the use of the fable in this novel.

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The Supernatural and Folklore in the Short Tales by Giovanni Magherini-Graziani and Eraldo Baldini

Author(s): Francesco Corigliano / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The essay focuses on the presence of the supernatural in Italian literature, and specifically in a trend linked to the folklore. The first part is about the literary production of Giovanni Magherini-Graziani (1852–1924), a writer from Tuscany who was the only Italian author published by the famous magazine Weird Tales. The tales of the supernatural written by Magherini-Graziani take much from the Tuscan folklore, imitating the folktale not only in the themes but also in the particular storytelling’s modes. The second part of the essay focuses on the tales by Eraldo Baldini (1952–), a contemporary writer from Emilia-Romagna, who uses the folklore in a way similar to Magherini-Graziani. Even if set nowadays, the stories written by Baldini develop around the possibility of a real existence of beings present in legends and folktales. The works of Magherini-Graziani and Baldini are selected as examples of a literary tendency present in Italy but overshadowed by the more traditional fantastic tale derived from gothic and romantic experiences, which is different for many reasons. This folkloric line is still close to the “orthodox” fantastic, and meanwhile has unique characteristics. Similarities consist in the narrative attitude and the presence of narrator- characters in the story: in the works by Magherini-Graziani, the tales are often told by many narrators, building an atmosphere of uncertainty and vagueness perfectly linked to the impossibility of the supernatural itself. In the works by Baldini, the story often focuses on a single narrator, or on a character whose responsibility it is to narrate, and who is involved personally in supernatural situations; the contemporary context influences the storytelling’s nature. Differences from the traditional fantastic tale consist in the collective imagination. If in the fantastic there is often an inversion of the general natural order (what is believed verisimilar in all the world), in the tales by Magherini-Graziani and Baldini, the imaginary is local and peculiar of the Italian province; the supernatural consists in the materialization of a legend or a folktale, and the reality’s inversion happens mainly in the close field of the beliefs typical of the regions narrated in the stories. The goal of the essay is then to highlight this part of the fantastic Italian production that draws fully not from the literary precedents but from the provincial substrate, moving the narrative mechanism of the oral tales in a written form with characteristics recurring in the time which maintain the actualization and representation of ancient beliefs.

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“Cette nature fragile:” Conflict and the Fantastic in the Novels of Maryse Condé

Author(s): Jessica Tindira / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Unlike in magical realism, in fantastic literature, as Tzvetan Todorov explains, the reader and the character hesitate: rational and magical explanations for the phenomenon remain in conflict. In Maryse Condé’s Moi, Tituba, sorciere… Noire de Salem, Tituba’s persistent state of conflict with European, Christian characters stems from such possibilities. For example, the first-person narration prevents the reader from arriving at a tenable conclusion about whether Tituba has true supernatural abilities or simply believes herself to have them, eliciting questions from the reader regarding Tituba’s agency. To further destabilize the reader, the novel manipulates the plot and characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well-known novel The Scarlet Letter and blends historical fact and fiction. These unsettling stylistic elements complement the hesitation evoked by the fantastic nature of the narrative itself. On a narrative level, if Tituba does perform magic, having been raised to believe she has a natural gift, she cannot attribute her power to the devil as the Puritans conceive him with any certainty, even if constant accusations that Tituba is evil punctuate the novel. The conflicting explanations for Tituba’s power invite the reader to question her innocence of charges of witchcraft and thus, the novel’s foundation. Ultimately, this paper concludes that by attributing the conflict between Tituba and her community to the hesitation inherent in a fantastic narrative, the novel recognizes that the unknown, whether spiritual or cultural, isolates Tituba more thoroughly than her supernatural abilities.

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Le pouvoir surnaturel dans la dramaturgie postcoloniale L’exemple de La Tignasse et La Termitière

Author(s): Fétigué Coulibaly / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

The many African religious beliefs can be summed up as animism, which is ancestral religion. This ancestral religion contains great secrets also called supernatural powers which are energies, occult forces, immeasurable powers. In Africa, the holders of these mystical powers are referred to by various names, including Devins, Healers, Wizards, Seers, Marabouts, Witches. They are, in African societies, the object of great covetousness by their capacity of intervention in all spheres of social life, including politics and theater.

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Relikty żydowskie w krajobrazach pamięci centralnej Polski

Author(s): Izabela Terela / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The author uses the notion of memoryscapes to present the historical process of restoring the memory of (or forgetting about) Jews in selected towns in Central Poland. For this purpose, she conducts an analysis of spatial landscape elements in the form of synagogues and cemeteries. The fate of these remnants of Jewish memoryscapes reveals a number of mechanisms for coding identity in space and taking a stance on multi-layered landscapes containing the memory of many groups. The author explores the issues of the presence/absence of the Holocaust in places of remembrance, the effect of the restitution of municipal assets, and the process of public memory decommunization in Poland.

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Krajobrazy „złej zmiany” w ukraińskich Kapratach: transformacja i kryzys od hali fabrycznej po połoniny

Author(s): Marcin Skupiński / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Members of degraded communities of Wałbrzych or Broniów described by Tomasz Rakowski often connected their experience of job loss and austerity with narrations about “the end of the world” and progressing degeneration of the world similar to ones recorded by earlier ethnographers in traditional rural societies. They created a story connecting both social and natural environment, which Rakowski called the feeling of “bad change.” I recorded similar stories during my research in Rakhiv district of Transcarpathia, Ukraine. Similarly to Rakowski’s research, the feeling of “bad change” included not only the social but also the natural surroundings. In this article I will show how narrations I gathered in the field are constructed in the context of landscape in combination with recent history of Ukraine and personal stories of my interlocutors. An important role in these narrations is played by not only the (post)industrial overview of the town but also that of “wild” mountain slopes, which together become symbols of the fall and economic stagnation of the region. In this paper I will show that the landscape is redefined in reference to not only the experience of political transition of the nineties but also the recent economic crisis in Ukraine unfolding since 2014. In the last part I argue that the stories I recorded in Rakhiv are deeply embedded in practices of “being in the world” of my interlocutors and thus they illustrate not only social but also ecological changes that Rakhiv district has undergone in the last decades.

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