Underneath it All

Paper Summary:

Tzevtan Todorov in his book, "The Fantastic. A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre" states that works labeled fantastic literature must contain three basic features. Todorov's theory of fantastical fiction is that the reader chooses whether to believe the natural or the supernatural choice, and this choice affects how the reader understands the text. This paper analyzes Todorov's theory by examining three works: Ruben Dario's "Thanatopia" and "The Case of Senorita Amelia", and Jorge Luis Borges' "The Zahir" in order to test the accuracy of Todorov's theory as it relates to fantasy.

Outline:
Introduction
Condition 1
Thanatopia
The Zahir
The Case of Senorita Amelia
Condition 2
Thanatopia
The Zahir
The Case of Senorita Amelia
Conclusion
Condition 3
Thanatopia
The Zahir
The Case of Senorita Amelia
Works Cited

From the Paper:

"The three stories chosen clearly satisfy the first two elements of fantasy-they happen. No mentions are made about an inherent magical world, and they satisfy the idea of a single, minimum departure. With these two conditions being met, we can proceed with a suitable analysis of whether the third and most important element, hesitation of the supernatural event, occurs. The conditions are as follows: 1) The text must leave the reader hesitating between the real and the supernatural, in the intermediate space of the unexplained and unexplainable. This hesitation can take the form of fear and perplexity, terror, wonder or surprise. 2) The fantastic requires that the reader identify with a character, or narrator, and that we share the hesitation with that character. 3) Unreliable narrator provides personal and subjective perspectives that lead the reader to the hesitation. The uses of two devices that the narrator uses to create more ambiguity are modalization and the imperfect tense. These two literary devices create an unreliable narrator, thus making it difficult for the reader to decipher the truth. In testing the theory, I will be asking the following questions: 1) are the conditions present in the story? (i.e. if they are absent, then the theory already fails) and 2) do the conditions do what they are supposed to do (give the reader hesitation and choice). If they do, then the theory holds and Todorov's theory helps the reader understand the story."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hager, Stanton. "Palaces of the Looking Glass: Borges's Deconstruction of Metaphysics." The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors. Ed. Robert A. Collins, Howard D. Pearce, and Eric S. Rabin. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985. 231-238.
• Hokenson, Jan. "Todorov and the Existentialists." The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors. Ed. Robert A. Collins, Howard D. Pearce, and Eric S. Rabin. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985. 33-39.
• Jaen, Didier T. "Mysticism, Esoterism, and Fantastic Literature." The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors. Ed. Robert A. Collins, Howard D. Pearce, and Eric S. Rabin. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985. 105-111.
• Plank, William C. "The Imaginary: Synthesis of Fantasy and Reality." The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors. Ed. Robert A. Collins, Howard D. Pearce, and Eric S. Rabin. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985. 77-82.
• Schwartz, Richard Alan. "The Fantastic in Contemporary Fiction." The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors. Ed. Robert A. Collins, Howard D. Pearce, and Eric S. Rabin. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985. 27-32.

More papers on Underneath it All:

• Analytical Essay # 23865 : "Ulysses"
• Essay # 70564 : "Harry Potter"
• Analytical Essay # 56537 : " "The Lottery"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: