The Feminine as Fantastic in the "Conte fantastique" by Ransom, Amy J.;

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The fantastic genre holds a privileged position in literary and feminist studies because of its open exploration of the limits of mimetic creation and its attempts to represent alterity, both feminine and supernatural. This study traces its development as a product of the dramatically changing cultural context of nineteenth-century France. Examining post-revolutionary concerns about questions of gender and identity, this work observes the increasingly disruptive force of the feminine fantastic upon the masculine subject/author as symptomatic of a crisis underlying dominant attitudes toward material progress, which culminated in the death of the representational in the early twentieth century.

"The multidisciplinary approach of this book is on the cutting edge of literary methodology and will be a very important resource for scholars in historical research, in cultural studies and in literary theory and criticism.
Ransom tackles very difficult theoretical questions on psychoanalysis and the nature of the fantastic, situates them for the reader, gives her own interpretation and evaluation of these questions and goes on to devise new theoretical questions from those posed by others.
Professor Ransom works through theory in the first part of the book as a way to deal with the literature and its historical and cultural implications. Subsequent sections engage thoroughly with specific literary texts, pushing theory and expanding its practice. Ransom is one of those rare critics who is as comfortable explaining and refuting theory as she is giving a close reading of a text, and her close readings are among the best I have seen." (Eileen B. Sivert, University of Minnesota) "I consider this volume a must for any college or university library." (Philip E. Kaveny, SFRA Review)