THE STRUCTURE OF THE FANTÔMAS NOVEL SERIES BY PIERRE SOUVESTRE AND MARCEL ALLAIN AND THE PROBLEM OF SERIALITY IN POPULAR LITERATURE
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
The essay examines the structure of a 32-volume series of Fantômas novels created by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain; it traces the origins and development of the serial genre and generic novelties related to seriality. The latter include a relative autonomy of each story in each volume and interconnection of the volumes via the figure of the criminal “slipping away” from the hands of justice. The study compares poetological techniques of the fabula development and points out specific features of the Belle époque reality as represented through the introduction of recognizable “cultural signs,” variations of everyday incidents, and newspaper chronicle of criminal events. It also analyzes the image of Fantômas and other recurrent characters of the series (such as Juve, Fandor, Hélène, Lady Maud Beltham, etc). The authors examine para-literary features that can be traced in many other different forms such as TV series and graphic novels. They include (1) mythologization of the main character as embodiment of Evil, or a “criminal genius”; (2) confusion of the real and the fictional, verisimilar and extraordinary, horrible and comic based on the variations of literary and journalistic clichés; (3) repetition of plot patterns, (4) attempts to guess and to meet reader’s expectations.
Authors and Affiliations
Kirill A. Chekalov
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26187
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2017-2-4-114-133
- Views 385
- Downloads 15
THE BIRTH OF AVANT-GARDE FROM THE SPIRIT OF MODERNISM
The article focuses on the problem of spirituality in the avant-garde culture of the beginning of the 20th Century. Everyone — artists, writers, theologians, philosophers, and reformers — wrote about the peculiar spirit...
A FOREWORD ON THE ANNIVERSARY (ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BRYUSOV CONFERENCE)
No Abstract
The Natural Sublime Leading to the Human Sublime (on Book 8 of Wordsworth’s The Prelude)
This article seeks to trace the connection between two kinds of the Romantic sublime envisaged in Book 8 of Wordsworth’s great autobiographical poem The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind (1805, 1850). Our focus is pr...
GOGOL: ACADEMIC AND COMPLETE
The ever-increasing international interest to Gogol explains the necessity of publishing a new edition of his works. The present Complete Collection of Gogol’s Works and Letters is an academic edition prepared and publ...
MEREZHKOVSKY’S THE FOURTEENTH OF DECEMBER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
The article demonstrates how Dmitry Merezhkovsky, in his novel The Fourteenth of The article demonstrates how Dmitry Merezhkovsky, in his novel The Fourteenth of December written in the midst of the revolution...