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Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on September 18, 2008
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2008 44(4):363-378; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqn055
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: The Fantastic: An Enduring Literary Mode [View the issue table of contents]

Finding Todorov in Russian Literary Criticism: The Struggle to Define the Fantastic

Jonathan Perkins

Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center
University of Kansas
4070 Wescoe Hall
1445 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence KS 66045–7590
USA

jperkins{at}ku.edu

  Abstract

This article examines Russian critical approaches to the fantastic tale over the past two centuries. Originally conceived as a pejorative label to describe Hoffmannesque delirium in the use of the supernatural, the term fantastic has also been used in Russia to describe works exhibiting a more restrained use of the supernatural and as a portmanteau for all works with "nonrealistic" elements. This article argues that despite this terminological fluidity, and despite a teleological focus on realistic methods, Russian critics have maintained a clear and consistent preference for those tales that balance the enlightened reader's attraction to the supernatural against his/her inherent scepticism. As such, Russia has produced an impressive corpus of fantastic tales and a body of critical literature that is remarkably consistent with Todorov's landmark work on the fantastic.

Key Words: fantastic • Russian • Todorov, Tzvetan • supernatural


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