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MARTHA J. NANDORFY
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At best we might say that the hidalgo's madness translates him into another,
imaginary sphere of life; but even so the everyday character of our scene and
others similar to it remains unharmed, because the persons and events of
everyday life are constantly colliding with his madness and come out in
stronger relief through the contrast. (343 - my emphasis)
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ation between states of mind and things has been shown, from various
disciplinary perspectives in the twentieth century, to constitute an
arbitrarily imposed order. Such narratives as CortAzar's "Axolotl" and
"Noche boca arriba," to mention only two, cannot be submitted to this
kind of examination due to the merging of the perceiver and the
perceived. It is no wonder that Todorov considers the last aesthetically
satisfying examples of the fantastic to be Maupassant's tales.
Todorov claims that for the fantastic to emerge the reading must
be neither poetic nor allegorical. The allegorical is relatively easy to
define. The poetic, however, poses more difficulties because instead of
clearly defining the boundaries of significance it explodes them.
Todorov deals with this by offering such a simplistic definition of
poetry that the whole issue of meaning is eliminated. Citing Roger
Caillois, he states that poetry creates infinite images which seek
incoherence as a principle and reject any signification (37). The
fantastic, therefore, is said to be located halfway between these infinite
images and the limited images of allegory. This dualistic structure,
with the fantastic perched precariously midway, is the paradigm
seemingly generated by the logocentric faith in the principle of non
contradiction. We may want to ask whether ambiguity is necessarily
the product of such a perceptual frame. In other words, can it only
exist marginally midway between two absolutes, or can it thrive in a
bigger way beyond the limits of a logocentric vision?
Todorov's premises and methodology do correspond to the works
he selects as representative of the fantastic, but ultimately he "ou
bien's" himself into a logical cul de sac where he is forced to deny the
possibility of literature in order to save reality:
Pour que 1'6criture soit possible, elle doit partir de la mort de ce dont elle
parle; mais cette mort la rend elle-meme impossible, car il n'y a plus quoi
6crire. La litt6rature ne peut devenir possible que pour autant qu'elle se rend
impossible. Ou bien ce qu'on dit est la present, mais alors il n'y a pas place
pour la litterature; ou bien on fait place a la litt6rature, mais alors il n'y a plus
rien i dire. (183-84)
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A paraxial region is an area in which light rays seem to unite at a point after
refraction. In this area, object and image seem to collide, but in fact neither
object nor reconstituted image genuinely reside there: nothing does. This
paraxial area couldl be taken to represent the secetral regrion of the fantastic,
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whose imaginary world is neither entirely "real" (object), nor entirely "unreal"
(image), but is located somewhere indeterminately between the two. (19)
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therefore, more real. This inversion saves the fantastic from being
marginalized as perversion, subversion, madness or nonsense.
While Alazraki's metaphor for the relation between the fantastic
and reality is based on a language - that of geometry, non-Euclidian
versus metric - it expresses essentially the same concepts arising in
quantum mechanics and relativity. Indeterminacy and
complementarity do not negate, but rather extend the boundaries of
signification. The subsequent vastness makes ultimate truths imposs
ible, but acknowledging this impossibility constitutes a kind of
understanding. Alazraki's approach differs generally from the other
two in that he does not draw simplistic distinctions between mimetic,
marvellous and fantastic modes, but instead associates all three with
a new perceptual frame that attempts to overcome the repressive
structures of our aristotelian tradition.
My view is that the works of Todorov and Jackson reveal that both
strictly formal and social criteria limit the fantastic to a negative
otherness from reality or culture. We have seen that such a perspec
tive is essentially informed by the same rationalistic bias as Auerbach's
interpretation of Don Quixote. The terms "mimesis," "marvellous,"
"fantastic" and even "neo-fantastic" all postulate the restricted realm
of the knowable as the basis for either imitation or deviation. While
Auerbach seems to be unaware of the artificial limitations of what he
calls reality, Todorov and especially Jackson are aware of it and yet
work within its confines. Alazraki recognizes that these terms reflect
cultural, historical prejudices that we have not yet managed to replace
but which are being modified in spite of the conservative forces of
language. His interpretations of Cortazar's stories actualize his theory
in a satisfying way, because they neither impose nor evade meaning.
Alazraki's understanding of literature as a deeply significant but
irreducible metaphor of existence balances our need to comprehend
and communicate, with our new recognition of the indeterminacy
inherent in all discourse. While dichotomies still inform our percep
tions, they are now interrelated to expand the imagination instead of
restricting it to choose between truth and illusion, as dictated by the
absolutist frame of perception.
Once we realize that there is no simple referential equation
between words and things, we also realize that all definitions are
approximations requiring both the elaboration of multiple contexts
and an awareness of the polysemic and mutating nature of language.
The designation "fantastic literature" cannot be reduced to a formula,
for it has come to mean may things which need constant redefining.
The fantastic opens up the narrow confines of rationalized reality and
destabilizes language by playing with it poetically, converting redcintive
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University of Calgary
WORKS CITED
ALAZRAKI, JAIME. En busca del unicornio: los cuentos de Julio Cortdzar, Madrid,
1983.
ARISTOTLE. Poetics. Ann Arbor, 1970.
AUERBACH, ERICH. "The Enchanted Dulcinea." Mimesis: The Representation of
Reality in Western Literature. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton, 1953.
334-58.
JACKSON, ROSEMARY. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London and New
York, 1981.
TODOROV, TZVETAN. Introduction d la littirature fantastique. Paris, 1970.
ZUKAV, GARY. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An overview of the New Physics. New
York, 1979.
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