<p>My intentions with this essay has been to examine the World in which the story of J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter takes place, the structure, narrative and restrictions, in order to place the suite of novels in the tradition of the Fantasy genre. Since the release of the first book Harry Potter has become a household name, possibly more than any other contemporary literature written for children. Various readings concerning gender, etymological, linguistic aspects and so forth have been done, and in most cases the books are placed in the genre of Fantasy without distinguishing what in fact makes the novels Fantasy. I wanted to see which specific sectors of the books that place them in the genre, and, assuming that it would in fact fit into the Fantasy genre, in which ways it diverges from the tradition of the genre in means of the structure of the world/s of the story. I also looked at the faults in the logic within the novels to see if the inconsistencies in the rules of the world have an impact on the agency of the story.</p><p>I found the novels to be a part of the fantasy tradition, not only by having many intertextual relations and similar features to other fantasy-novels but also in the fundament of the story, its basic conditions such as the supernatural elements and the hidden places in the world of the books. The minor inconstancies that I found where to small to disrupt the narrative, and the fact that some of the aspects of the books drift slightly away from the logic of the world within the story have reasonable explanations such as making the story easier to relate to.</p>

My intentions with this essay has been to examine the World in which the story of J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter takes place, the structure, narrative and restrictions, in order to place the suite of novels in the tradition of the Fantasy genre. Since the release of the first book Harry Potter has become a household name, possibly more than any other contemporary literature written for children. Various readings concerning gender, etymological, linguistic aspects and so forth have been done, and in most cases the books are placed in the genre of Fantasy without distinguishing what in fact makes the novels Fantasy. I wanted to see which specific sectors of the books that place them in the genre, and, assuming that it would in fact fit into the Fantasy genre, in which ways it diverges from the tradition of the genre in means of the structure of the world/s of the story. I also looked at the faults in the logic within the novels to see if the inconsistencies in the rules of the world have an impact on the agency of the story. I found the novels to be a part of the fantasy tradition, not only by having many intertextual relations and similar features to other fantasy-novels but also in the fundament of the story, its basic conditions such as the supernatural elements and the hidden places in the world of the books. The minor inconstancies that I found where to small to disrupt the narrative, and the fact that some of the aspects of the books drift slightly away from the logic of the world within the story have reasonable explanations such as making the story easier to relate to.

The aim of this thesis is to study the market for fantastic fiction in Sweden, focusing on the minor publishers and their relationship with the three major publishing groups. The fantastic fiction in Swedish today are generally dominated by bestselling anglo-american authors, especially at the major publishers. The selection of fantastic fiction that is not originally in English and that diverges from the classic, epic high fantasy is often provided by minor publishers. By researching the range of fantastic fiction in Sweden today, and combining that research with qualitative interviews with informants from five minor publishers and Sweden's largest book shop for fantastic fiction, I wish to examine if the minor publishers provide an important alternative for Swedish readers of fantastic fiction. I also intend to investigate whether those publishers actively try to broaden the Swedish market and if they see themselves as a complement and an alternative rather than competing with the major publishers. This is a study in sociology of literature, focusing on a literary genre that is generally regarded as popular or trivial literature. Therefore, this thesis also discusses the curcuit of popular literature and the position and conditions of fantastic fiction in Sweden today, using the french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's frameworks and terminology regarding economical and cultural capital. Fantastic fiction is a genre normally associated with economical rather than cultural capital, a notion that greatly affects its position and status in the world of literature.

Thèse (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

Avec la conscience grandissante de la constructibilité de l’histoire, l’historiographie et les sciences littéraires se sont beaucoup rapprochées dans les dernières années. Hayden White a montré, dans son livre Metahistory (1973), que dans la construction de l’histoire, les historiens utilisent, pour construire leur récit, des techniques de narration semblables à celles utilisées par les écrivains. La narratologie devient ainsi une discipline qui rend possible le dialogue entre l’historiographie et les sciences littéraires. Par ce dialogue entre les deux disciplines, les théories (post)modernes de l’historiographie et les concepts de la métafiction dans la littérature s’influencent réciproquement. Dans ce contexte, il est d’autant plus intéressant d’analyser le roman Novembre 1918 de l’écrivain allemand Alfred Döblin (1878-1957), qui anticipe sur cette évolution de l’historiographie et de la littérature, mais qui, malgré sa modernité, reste paradoxalement très peu connu et quasiment ignoré par la critique littéraire. Dans son roman historique, Döblin combine le récit épique des faits historiques avec l’analyse existentielle des protagonistes, en vue de décrire l’histoire comme procès. Du point de vue formel, il combine les moyens narratifs expérimentaux et avant-gardistes, avec la conviction traditionnelle de l’auteur réaliste, c’est-à-dire qu’un récit de fiction puisse dire la vérité sur la réalité et l’histoire. Ainsi il crée une forme singulière de récit entre tradition et innovation, forme qu’il caractérise dans ses essais poétologiques à partir de deux concepts clés : « modernes Epos » et « Tatsachenphantasie », « épopée moderne » et « fantaisie de la réalité ». Dans ma thèse, j’entends définir ces concepts clés de la poétique d’Alfred Döblin pour ainsi établir le cadre théorique de l’interprétation du roman Novembre 1918. L’auteur lui-même définit dans ses essais esthétiques la « fantaisie de la réalité » comme union entre des faits réels et des faits fantastiques. C’est pourquoi ma thèse se concentre sur ce jeu fictionnel entre réalité et fantaisie, entre les éléments du récit réaliste et ceux du récit fantastique. « L’incursion de la démonie » et « le narrateur démiurge » sont deux concepts innovateurs de ma thèse qui aideront à mieux comprendre et définir la poétique du roman d’Alfred Döblin. / As a result of the acute understanding of the constructibility of historical writings, the historiography and the literary sciences have come closer in the last few years. Hayden White shows in his book Metahistory (1973) that the narrative techniques historians use in their historical writings are similar to those used by the authors of literary writings. The narratology has also become a discipline, which allows the dialogue between historiography and literary sciences. Thus, the (post)modern theories of historiography and the concepts of metafiction in literature have an impact on one another. In this context, it is more than challenging to analyse the historical novel November 1918 written by the German author Alfred Döblin (1878-1957), as he already anticipates in the 1920es this evolution of historiography and literature. His historical novel November 1918 is, despite its modernity, a relatively unknown novel, not only to the public, but also to the literary critics. Döblin combines in this novel the monumental realistic description of historical events with the existential analysis of his protagonists. As far as the formal aspects are concerned, he combines the experimental narrative techniques of the avant-garde with the traditional elements, thus unveiling the conviction of the traditional realist author that a fictional literary work can bring out a hidden truth about history and reality. Therefore, he creates a unique form of literature linking tradition and innovation. He caracterises this form, in his poetological writings by means of two key-concepts: “modernes Epos” and “Tatsachenphantasie”: “modern epos” and “fantasy of the real”. In my dissertation I intend to define these key-concepts in Alfred Döblin’s poetics with a view to establish the theoretical setting for the interpretation of his novel November 1918. Since Döblin himself defines in his theoretical essays the “fantasy of the real” as portrayal of both real and fantastic elements, my dissertation focuses on this fictional tension between reality and fantasy, between the elements specific to the realist writings and those specific to the fantastic ones. The “incursion of the demonic” and “the narrator demiurge” are two innovative concepts I present in my dissertation. These concepts should lead to a better definition and understanding of Döblin’s novel poetics. / Die Historiographie und die Literaturwissenschaft haben sich in den letzten Jahren sehr viel angenähert. Durch sein bahnbrechendes Buch Metahistory (1973) bringt Haydn White ans Licht, dass sowohl die Schriftsteller als auch die Historiker sich ähnlicher narrativer Verfahren bedienen, um die Wirklichkeit zu beschreiben. Durch dieses Bewusstsein der Konstruktivität und Narrativität von Geschichte ist die Narratologie zur verbindenden Wissenschaft geworden. Darum ist es interessant, sich Alfred Döblins historischem Roman November 1918, einem der großen historischen Romane der deutschen Literatur, zuzuwenden, weil er vieles davon vorwegnimmt, was die (post)modernen Theorien der Historiographie und die metafiktionalen Konzepte der Literatur ins Blickfeld rücken. Aufgrund unglücklicher Rezeptionsbedingungen wurde Döblins Roman bis heute kaum beachtet, sowohl vom Publikum als auch von der literarischen Kritik. In seiner Darstellung der deutschen Revolution verknüpft Döblin die experimentell-avantgardistischen Erzählverfahren und das Misstrauen gegenüber der Erzählbarkeit der Geschichtsprozesse mit der traditionellen Einstellung, dass eine fiktive Erzählung die Wahrheit über Wirklichkeit und Geschichte sagen kann. Dementsprechend schafft er eine einzigartige Erzählform zwischen Tradition und Innovation, die er bereits in seinem Berliner Programm anhand von zwei Schlüsselbegriffen definiert: „modernes Epos“ und „Tatsachenphantasie“. Meine Arbeit versucht, Döblins Geschichtsepos November 1918 im Lichte dieser zwei Begriffe zu analysieren und zu zeigen, wie Döblin sein ästhetisches Postulat der „Tatsachenphantasie“ in seinem Roman literarisch realisiert. Da Döblin selbst die „Tatsachenphantasie“-Ästhetik als Verbindung der wirklichen und der phantastischen Fakten und Elementen definiert, befasse ich mich in meiner Arbeit mit diesem Zusammenspiel zwischen den narrativen Formen der realistischen Erzählung und denjenigen Motiven und Elementen, die in den phantastischen Erzählungen vorkommen. „Der Einbruch des Dämonischen“ und „der Erzähler als Demiurg“ sind zwei innovative Schlüsselkonzepte meiner Arbeit, die zu einer besseren Begriffsbestimmung von Döblins „Tatsachenphantasie“-Ästhetik führen werden. / Thèse réalisée en co-tutelle avec l'Université Libre de Berlin, Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie

Weird fiction criticism has been largely focused on either analyzing texts via the biographies of weird fiction authors, or concentrating on the words on the page to a degree that ignores all outside context. Although these approaches are valuable, more utility is to be found in analyzing weird fictions via their specific historical locations. This dissertation demonstrates the validity of this approach by surveying the works of five American weird fiction authors from the Twentieth Century (Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Bloch, and Ligotti), and giving new interpretations that are based on an understanding of their placement within specific historical milieus (respectively, anti-WWI sentiment, surrealism and the problem of representation, Southern and Southwestern regionalism, pastiche and publishing culture, and metafiction and genre fiction). This survey supports the need for a new critical approach to weird fiction as described in this dissertation, and furthers our understanding of weird fiction by investigating hitherto unexplored perspectives on weird texts.

La présente thèse a pour dessein d’analyser cinq récits de la littérature fantastique française. Pour délimiter mon corpus d’étude, j’ai élu des récits des années 1830 (époque pendant laquelle la littérature fantastique s’est établie et s’est largement diffusée en France) : Melmoth réconcilié (1835) d’Honoré de Balzac ; La Cafetière (1831), Omphale, histoire rococo (1834), La Morte amoureuse (1836) et La Pipe d’opium (1838) de Théophile Gautier. Ayant un objectif théorique (l’étude du fantastique en tant que genre littéraire) et deux objectifs pratiques (l’examen des caractéristiques du fantastique dans les récits susmentionnés et la traduction en portugais du Brésil de Melmoth réconcilié et d’Omphale, histoire rococo), ce travail est divisé en quatre parties. Dans la première, je me consacre au genre fantastique (sa définition, sa place en France dans l’histoire littéraire, ses rapports avec l’étrange et le merveilleux et, finalement, ses caractéristiques au niveau du discours et de la diégèse, ainsi qu’au niveau des figures et des thèmes). La deuxième et la troisième parties, de leur côté, permettent de retracer la façon dont se constitue le fantastique dans quelques ouvrages de Balzac et de Gautier. La quatrième et dernière partie présente une synthèse du fantastique chez les deux écrivains étudiés, par le moyen d’une proposition de regroupement des figures et des thèmes qui ont été observés dans l’ensemble de récits choisis. / A presente tese tem como objetivo analisar cinco narrativas da literatura fantástica francesa. Para delimitar meu corpus de estudo, selecionei narrativas dos anos 1830 (época na qual a literatura fantástica estabeleceu-se e difundiu-se na França): Melmoth réconcilié (1835), de Honoré de Balzac; La Cafetière (1831), Omphale, histoire rococo (1834), La Morte amoureuse (1836) e La Pipe d’opium (1838), de Théophile Gautier. Este trabalho, tendo um objetivo teórico (o estudo do fantástico enquanto gênero literário) e dois objetivos práticos (o exame das características do fantástico nas narrativas acima mencionadas e a tradução em português do Brasil de Melmoth réconcilié e de Omphale, histoire rococo), é dividido em quatre partes. Na primeira parte, consagro-me ao gênero do fantástico (sua definição, seu lugar na França no que diz respeito à história literária, suas ligações com o estranho e o com o maravilhoso, e, finalmente, suas características no nível discursivo e diegético, bem como no nível figurativo e temático). A segunda e terceira partes, por sua vez, permitem retraçar a forma da constituição do fantástico em algumas das narrativas de Balzac e Gautier. A quarta e última parte apresenta uma síntese do fantástico no âmbito da obra dos dois escritores estudados através de uma proposição de reagrupamento das figuras e dos temas que foram observados no conjunto das narrativas escolhidas. / The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze five French fantastic literary narratives. In order to define the study corpus, I have read stories from the 1830’s (the years during which fantastic literature established itself and circulated widely in France): Melmoth réconcilié (1835) by Honoré de Balzac; La Cafetière (1831), Omphale, histoire rocococo (1834), La Morte amoureuse (1836) and La Pipe d’opium (1838) by Théophile Gautier. This work has a theoretical goal (the study of fantastic literature as a literary genre) and two practical goals (the examination of the characteristics of the fantastic in the forementioned stories and the translation of Melmoth réconcilié and Omphale, histoire rococo into Brazilian Portuguese) and it is divided in four parts. In the first part, I focus on the fantastic genre (its definition, its place in France’s literary history, its relations with the weird and the marvelous and finaly its characteristics on the level of discourse and diegesis, as well as on the level of figures and themes). The second and third parts, on their side, make it possible to retrace how the fantastic is constituted in some of Balzac’s and Gautier’s works. The fourth and last part presents a synthesis of the fantastic in the two authors studied by means of a propostion of regrouping of these figures and themes observed on the whole of the chosen stories.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-05-16T11:29:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata de Souza Spinola.pdf: 2200467 bytes, checksum: ae125ccf661cacec31c41db10c01ff24 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-05-27T21:24:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata de Souza Spinola.pdf: 2200467 bytes, checksum: ae125ccf661cacec31c41db10c01ff24 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-27T21:24:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata de Souza Spinola.pdf: 2200467 bytes, checksum: ae125ccf661cacec31c41db10c01ff24 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Esta dissertação constitui-se numa tentativa de compreender como o conceito de fantástico se difundiu na teoria da literatura e a possibilidade de sua permanência no discurso literário contemporâneo. Para tanto, foi empreendida uma revisão da teoria através da qual esse termo foi divulgado e dos entraves que dela derivam. Ao examinar esse processo, buscou-se identificar que elementos possibilitavam reconhecer um texto como fantástico, os períodos aos quais este tipo de relato esteve associado e as razões pelas quais esse conceito ficou impossibilitado de abranger as narrativas que se desenvolveram no século XX. Dentre essas razões, a maior delas foi atribuída ao surgimento da psicanálise e, por esse motivo, procurou-se observar que tipo de relação a literatura fantástica trava com o discurso psicanalítico. Além disso, buscou-se estabelecer, com base nas teorias revisadas, em novas abordagens teóricas acerca do fantástico e, sobretudo, no próprio discurso da psicanálise, características que pudessem ser identificadas como fantásticas em narrativas contemporâneas, objetivando a reabilitação desse conceito. Para este estudo elegemos as narrativas de Antonio Brasileiro como objeto de abordagem. / Salvador

Antonín Kudláč Czech Popular Fantastic Arts 1990 - 2012 in Cultural, Social and Literary Contexts The dissertation focuses on the exploration of popular fantastic arts in the Czech environment between 1990 and 2012. Popular fantastic arts are defined as a segment of popular culture, which uses fantastic motifs and finds expression in various art forms and media (literature, film and television programs, visual arts, games, etc.). Popular fantastic literature (science fiction, fantasy, horror) is used as the basic medium for research in this area. For defining and understanding the nature of popular fantastic arts, its recipients (the so-called fans), who form a distinctive subculture called the fandom, are of extreme importance. This dissertation, bordering on interdisciplinary cultural anthropology, sociology, literary criticism and media studies, is based on the hypothesis of an active and creative approach of the recipients of popular culture, who endow these cultural artifacts with their own meanings, share them and use them for their own interests. This approach is rooted mostly in the theoretical works of John Fiske and Henry Jenkins, in particular in the concept of participatory culture and cultural divergence. The work consists of two parts. The research development of popular culture in...

De Nodier à Baudelaire, nombre de romantiques ont clamé leur désenchantement ou leur mélancolie ; on les a trop souvent pris au mot, oubliant « la puissance d'être à la fois soi et un autre » qui est la leur. Confrontés à un réel en voie d’uniformisation qu’ils méprisent ainsi qu’aux tourments d’une intériorité qu’ils découvrent duelle et déchirée, ils font du rire et de l’imagination, « reine des facultés », les leviers d’une résistance et d’une créativité renouvelée, cette dernière s’appuyant sur un recyclage humoristique de formes oubliées et visant à restaurer une sensibilité perdue tout en l’adaptant à leur époque. Ils inventent le fantastique moderne et font du rire le principe de son écriture. Le rire, paradoxal, y prend en charge les contradictions du réel et du langage, l’oblicité de l’ironie en révélant la réversibilité et la polysémie, dans un esprit malicieux et retors qui fait circuler partout, jusque sous les apparences les plus macabres les serpenteaux d’artifice du Witz. Le rire des fantastiqueurs n’est pas un rire « réduit » mais un rire intériorisé, un rire galvanisé par la découverte de l'épaisseur et de l'étrangeté des choses, un rire qui contribue à donner naissance à la bienveillance distanciée de l’humour moderne / From Nodier to Baudelaire, numerous romantic poets and writers claimed their disillusionment in human existence or their melancholy. Much too often, they have been taken at their words, one neglecting the ''power to be oneself and someone else at one and the same time” which was theirs and constituted their dual nature. Facing up a reality on its way to standardization, which they despised, as well astorments of their inner self which they experienced and felt as agonizingly dual and tornapart, they turned laughter and imagination, being “the most dignified faculty of mind”, into power of resistance and renewed creativity, the latter being based on a humorous adjustment and re-use of old forms, highlighting this way the revival of lost sensitivities while updating these to their time.They were the inventors of the modern fantastic literature and made out of laughter the principle of this new form of writing. There, laughter, paradoxical, takes on and assumes the internal contradictions of reality, the oblique and indirect nature of irony by disclosing the reversibility and the polysemy of their surrounding world, in a mischievous and cunning spirit which disseminates the pharaoh's serpent fireworks of the Witz all over the place, and which emit sparks even from the most macabre appearances such as the grim reaper of death.The laughter of the fantastic authors is not a "subdued" laughter, a restrained laughter, but an inner laughter, exalted by the consciousness of the density and weirdness as well as through the uncanny nature of things, a laughter which contributes to the emergenceof modern humor, because it takes a step back while paying benevolent attention to the other