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

by Claire Whitehead

Overview

This book attempts to reveal how the fantastic operates and how it produces its effects, and analyses the devices and techniques used by the fantastic in order to produce hesitation in the mind of the reader. It proceeds through an analysis of one French and one Russian work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904350569
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/01/2006
Series:	Studies In Comparative Literature Series , #10
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Claire Whitehead is Lecturer in Russian at the University of St Andrews.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Reliability and Shifting Perspectives: Hesitation in Heterodiegesis 2. Personality and Multiple Voice: Hesitation in Homodiegesis 3. Madness and Narrative Disintegration: Hesitation and Coherence 4. Narrative Play and Generic Disruption: Hesitation and Self-Consciousness 5. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Essential reading for scholars of the fantastic; I also recommend it to instructors, who can use Whitehead's readings of these classic texts to astound their students by revealing the way that language works to produce the thrills of the genre.

The Russian Review, 68.1, May 2009, 129-30 - Lynn Patyk

This is a very readable work, which constitutes a valuable complement to Todorov's 1970 "Introduction à la littérature fantastique.

235 Forum for Modern Language Studies

Most of all benefits through its comparative analyses of chosen texts; this not only makes obvious the "pan-European" context in which the fantastic flourished during the nineteenth century but will, it is to be hoped, inspire others to tinker further with some of the concepts applied here to the fantastic, especially in relation to other examples of Gothic fiction.

Modern Language Review, 104.3, 2009, 824-25 - Slobodan Sugur

This recent volume from the Legenda imprint maintains the high standards of production and academic excellence in the field of comparative literature that readers have come to expect from the marque.

Slavonic and East European Review, 86.4, 2008, 707-09 - Leon Burnett

This is a very readable work, which constitutes a valuable complement to Todorov's 1970 "Introduction à la littérature fantastique.

Forum for Modern Language Studies