Stephen Donner
Dr. R. Brittenham
English E303
Close Reading Five
March 7, 2006
In “Literature and the Fantastic,” Tzvetan Todorov’s chapter within The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, he examines how the supernatural functions within the framework of a novel to expedite a transition from a state he calls the “median disequilibrium” in order to “provoke the long quest for the second equilibrium” (164-5). That is, the supernatural events exist to bring about rapid change within an otherwise static narrative trajectory; so far, so good.
Where I find fault with Todorov’s reasoning specifically is in how he insists that these “certain events,” when they “explicitly account for themselves as imaginary […] thereby contest the imaginary nature of the rest of the book” (168). Furthermore, he says, “if a certain apparition is only the fruit of an overexcited imagination, then everything around it is real” (168). To me, this appears myopic. While both of his statements are indeed logical assumptions, they nonetheless remain limiting.
Instead, one can employ an effective plot device by which at first supernatural apparitions or occurrences are debunked. Later, however, there would be a genuine supernatural apparition or occurrence. This new appearance is all the more effective because the character, in witnessing or in fact bringing about the debunking in the first place, now is faced with what he likely views as a false apparition, and is not prepared to deal with it on supernatural terms. His approach has changed, and the potential for danger is elevated.
Todorov ought to account for this; it seems too important a plot device to utilize when dealing with the supernatural. Sweeping generalizations, though indeed logical, cannot effectively compensate for complex plot structures, particularly when dealing with the supernatural.