The topic I explore in my dissertation is directly related to the recent surge of interest, demonstrated by numerous critics, for aesthetic production traditionally considered as peripheral. Such is the case, in literature, for texts which deal primarily with fantasy. Over the last two decades, fantastic literature has motivated a vastly varied critical response and has subsequently encountered an equally wide range of definitions. My methodological approach is essentially interdisciplinary, confronting several perspectives that inspire and inform my work, such as narratological studies, psychoanalytical readings poststructuralist literary theory and postmodern research on science a literature In order to illustrate my topic, I take a close look at the fantastic tales' written by Guy de Maupassant and Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, two major authors in this category. Their work corresponds exactly to the well-known definition of the fantastic as a genre, provided by Tzvetan Todorov in his seminal Introduction a la litterature fantastique This work elaborates on the Todorovian notion of the ambiguity of the fantastic. By examining the ways in which ambiguity operates at the structural level I attempt to demonstrate Maupassant and Villiers' intuitive awareness of the problematic status of fantastic narration. The tension resulting from such awareness has led both authors to produce highly complex and self-reflexive narrative patterns. I closely examine the way each author represents ambiguity through investigation into the interrelated concepts of desire (as described by Freud) and entropy (as defined by chaos theory). These, in my view, function as poles of attraction between which the fantastic narrative structure oscillates. I interrogate the role they play in testing the limits of the text's structural space Relying on the historical coincidence between nineteenth-century fantastic literature, the discovery of the unconscious by Freud and the conceptualization of entropy by Clausius in the second law of thermodynamics, I establish intimate connections between the routinely compartmentalized fields of literature, psychoanalysis and science. My work investigates the way in which the uncanny functions as the element of the fantastic structural logic which exposes the text's uncertainty about its own status. I then attempt to uncover the 'entropic' properties of the fantastic narrative by studying the devices used by fantastic writers to suggest disorder in an otherwise tightly ordered narrative. The most striking of these devices is the systematic recourse to what I call 'chaotic figures' which function as agents of ambiguity both at the thematic and structural levels The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the fragility of narrative organization, structurally suggested in the fantastic texts of the late nineteenth century, anticipates the chaotic narrative patterns of postmodern metafiction. This task, to my knowledge, has never been attempted before / acase@tulane.edu

In Paul Valery's Cahiers, where the investigations and perplexities of the author's daily thought were recorded over a period of fifty-one years, Valery returns again and again to the theme of falsification in connection with almost every subject he explores. Indeed, in his view, falsification is a process not only present but even unavoidable in all human experience. Without it, whether it be conscious or unconscious, man would not be able to cope with the infinite diversity of reality, abstract or concrete In the Introduction of this dissertation, the writer presents an overview of some philosophical and artistic trends relating to Valery's concept of falsification as exhibited in the Cahiers in order to enable the reader to grasp a better understanding of it. Chapter I examines Valery's view of falsification as an essential process in man's perception and representation of the exterior world, of the past, and of dreams. In addition, Valery's reasons for considering language not only as the mind's most important tool, but also as its most considerable source of falsification are studied, as well as his theory that a more mathematical type of language would eliminate many of language's abusive falsifiers. In Chapter II, Valery's arguments against philosophy and religion for their falsity are analysed. Its inevitability in human relationships, including that of the self with the self, as Valery sees it, is investigated in Chapter III. Chapters IV and V deal with literature, history, and art. No literature, except poetry, in Valery's opinion, escapes useless falsification, and thereby qualifies as true art. In conclusion, falsification is something encountered at every turn in Valery's pursuits, acknowledged, and then used advantageously by him in particular ways to intimate and discover progressively reality, which is ultimately inexhaustible / acase@tulane.edu

Benito Perez Galdos's literary depictions of addiction transcend those of other late nineteenth-century Naturalist authors, such as Emile Zola of France, to offer a strikingly modern perspective of addiction. Typical nineteenth-century representations of alcoholism merely describe the long term effects of heavy drinking and alcoholic degeneration, especially in the proletariat. In Galdos's novels, such as La desheredada (1881) and Fortunata y Jacinta (1886--1887), figures of addiction and representations of addictive pathologies, which we recognize in his descriptions of vicio, locura, and embriaguez, demonstrate an understanding of the same motivations or defects that are recognized as addictive features today Studies that focus on addiction in nineteenth-century Spain or on representations of alcoholism in nineteenth-century Spanish letters are rare. Historians of the period's psychiatry concur that Spain relied heavily on foreign, especially French, psychiatric models and theories. In addition, figures of madness and addiction were represented and constructed in the novelistic art of the era, and the work of Galdos is especially rich in this respect. A comparison of historical and medical literature with Galdos's fiction of the same period is fruitful in delineating some common beliefs as well as pointing to subversions of official 'truths' regarding madness and addiction. From this perspective, we can read Galdos's work as a challenge to medical science and the discourses related to the construction and control of the individual in nineteenth-century Spain on two fronts. Firstly, the humanist author's ironic appropriation of medical, scientific, and pharmacological subjects and terms signals a refusal to privilege science over literary fiction in its power to explain and study human behavior. Secondly, Galdos's work contains a challenge to the normalizing discourse of science, which sought to posit (as Foucault famously described) distinct identities in the categorizing of human beings and their behavior. It is particularly through figures of madness and addiction that Galdos teases out the contradictions inherent in the discourses employed by the medical, religious, and social experts of the day, thereby problematizing the binaries of reason and unreason / acase@tulane.edu

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This dissertation explores the ways in which the provocation of fear in the reader of the chanson de geste, conte folklorique, conte merveilleux, the gothic and the nineteenth-century conte fantastique contributes to the formation of individual and collective identity. I begin with an analysis of the epic, the folkloric and the marvellous. Through close readings of selected texts, I identify the mechanisms by which the provocation of fear encourages characters and readers to act according to the goals and ideals of the collective social group. I argue that in these genres the present-day notion of the individual is indistinguishable from the collective social group, and that the role of fear centres on the textual manipulation of emotion as benefits that collective. Turning to the fantastic, I challenge notions of the fantastic as a subversive genre. Considering the professionalization of medicine and science as well as the development of the concept of human rights, I look at how the French fantastic of the two primary 'waves' (1830s and 1880s) focuses on the interior, psychic development of the individual not at the expense of the collective, but as a unit of sociohistoric change. To reveal the therapeutic mechanisms at work in the conte fantastique and the ways in which it anticipates modern-day notions of individuality, I consider the presence of historical cultural trauma in nineteenth-century France. I examine instances of loss in the fantastic, and I demonstrate how fear ushers the main character into the bereavement process. I draw parallels between the fantastic narrative and the process of mourning work outlined by Freud and others as I argue for the fantastic text a potential forum for the mourning work of the nineteenth-century reading population. Through close readings of Gautier and Merimee's fantastic short stories, I show how fear in the first wave provokes what Freud terms 'reality-testing' in the form of libidinal cathexis to an object of desire. Ultimately, the narrator ceases his narcissistic identification with the lost object and assumes a traditional role in society. As a result, he purges his fears. In my analysis of the second wave of the French fantastic, I focus on Maupassant's short stories. I draw on Freud's definition of pathological mourning as well as additional bereavement theories that incorporate the persistence of trauma post-loss. I argue for Maupassant's fantastic narrative as a forerunner of the intake interview common in psychiatric sessions and as an act of what psychologist Robert A. Neimeyer terms 'meaning reconstruction,' or the integration of traumatic events into a personal narrative. I then demonstrate how fear provokes the reconstruction of the narrator's traumatically shattered selfhood while eliciting the crucial participation of the sympathetic reader-as-witness. In conclusion, I argue that not only does the French fantastic of the nineteenth century offer a historic parallel to the mourning process, but that it also anticipates notions of trauma theory, bereavement and the construction of selfhood as we know them today / acase@tulane.edu

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Through the concept of intra-historia, Unamuno formulates a philosophy of history that allows for an acknowledgement of historical facts, while asserting that there also exists a deeper truth that better expresses the complicated course of Spanish history. Historia, the more obvious presence of recorded events and ideas, will therefore be supported by an intra-historia, a determining force whose existence is perceived through the eternal traditions of the essentially ahistorical pueblo. As developed throughout Unamuno's writings, the dichotomy of historia/intra-historia is applied to individuals as well as to societies. It reflects the opposition of a strident personal consciousness to an obscure lack of self-awareness, and the forging of a painful temporal identity, a self-creation, to the soothing acceptance of eternal peace It is our belief that although the major statements about intra-historia are found in don Miguel's early works, the idea is nevertheless an integral part of the majority of his later novels. After analyzing the essays of En torno al casticismo (1895), this study therefore proceeds to evaluate the presence of intra-historia in three of Unamuno's novels, each indicative of one of his three major periods: Paz en la guerra (1897), Niebla (1914), and San Manuel Bueno, martir (1930). We also briefly treat other novels of each period, showing how the themes and symbolism consistently associated with intra-historia appear in these works as well In En torno al casticismo and Paz en la guerra, intra-historia is more a metaphor--a poetic way of approaching life--than a well-defined philosophical or historical concept. By accepting, rather than confronting, the controlling passage of time, Unamuno creates a series of physical-world images that reflect the eternal truths of nature and incorporate these truths into the daily lives of the people residing within this natural world In the novels of his middle period, as exemplified by Niebla, intra-historia becomes a flexible, yet persistent backdrop against which characters' personal dramas are played out. Since the comforting world of nature has disappeared, intra-historia is seen principally through 'natural' female characters who serve as a counterpoint to the highly individualized passions experienced by males Although intra-historia reemerges as an important textual element in San Manuel Bueno, martir, its role is essentially that of an 'other' used by don Manuel for the solidification of his personal historia. The lack of vitality of the pueblo, as well as the ambivalent role played by an intra-historic female character, attest to the pervasive presence of conscious, individual personalities, even in the midst of intra-historic continuity / acase@tulane.edu

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As a worthy writer Benjam(')in Jarnes has not received the recog-nition he deserves. His being a participant in a controversial and turbulent period in Spanish history (1888-1949) has unjustly cast a negative shadow over his work, particularly his novels. Literary criticism has, until recently, conferred upon Jarnes a minor position as a novelist and disregarded his works. His novels, therefore, are either out of print or scattered throughout Spanish America and Spain Lately, however, noted critics have viewed Jarnes's writings in a more positive light. Nevertheless, no researcher has yet developed a comprehensive study of his poetics. This dissertation undertakes such a study concentrating on the following Jarnesian novels: El convidado de papel, Lo rojo y lo azul, Teor(')ia del zumbel, La novia del viento, Locura y muerte de nadie, El profesor inutil, and Orlando el pac(')ifico Using current studies concerning structuralist poetics, this disser-tation finds that by examining Jarnes's novels outside their historical context a new understanding can be achieved, one that places his work ahead of its time. The non-representational aspects of reality in Jarnes's novels serve to exemplify his departure from tradition and his quest for new forms of expression. His vision of a multi-facted reality and his interpretation of the Jungian archetype, together with other devices, contribute to give form to the new reality he seeks This new vision finds expression in a spatial narrative that, in many instances, is disassociated from conventions. Language in his novels surpasses literalness through the use of poetic techniques, particu-larly metaphor, with which he presents an aesthetic view of the world. To reinforce his tendency to de-novelize, he incorporates intertextu-ality, dehumanization, and animation as integral components of the total language framework of the novel This study also examines the author's view of the function of the novelist in society. According to him, literature should not be subordinated to socio-political considerations. The conclusion proposes that the concept of harmony, which along with a pervasive intellectualism, serves as a leitmotif in Jarnes's work, provides the normative principles and guiding forces in his novels / acase@tulane.edu