ABSTRACT

Over thirty years since Introduction à la littérature fantastique broke new ground, efforts to understand the fantastic and its related modes in greater depth continue apace. The recent monographs by Nicholas Royle and Dorothea E. von Mucke bear witness to the potential for analysis offered by the genre. This chapter work identifies itself very strongly with the critical legacy of Tzvetan Todorov. The recent monographs by Nicholas Royle and Dorothea E. von Mucke bear witness to the potential for analysis offered by the genre. However, it has not been the author's intention to assess the devices contributing to uncertainty in an abstract manner; the author's interest consistently lies in the action or effect of a technique. The chapter addresses Todorov's claims regarding the attitude which a reader must adopt towards the literary text in order for hesitation to be possible. The potential for the fantastic to exist in narratives which present playful and self-conscious narrative voices.