This thesis adresses the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on the fantastic genre in France (»le fantastique«), which includes stories, that were produced roughly between 1830 and 1850. This thesis is based, inter alia, on Freud's essay about the uncanny (»Das Unheimliche«), but mostly on the Todorov's definition of the fantastic. The latter is based on three conditions, on which a literary work belongs to the fantastic genre, the essential one being the (implicit) reader's hesitation between a rational and a supernatural explanation of the fantastic events that suddenly take place in an otherwise realistic narrative frame. The fantastic exists only as long as there is uncertainty, therefore Todorov's defitiniton is extremely narrow and includes a relatively small number of literary works. However, this definition implies a key role of the (implicit) reader in the fantastic genre. As for the effect of uncertainty, it can be achieved by different narrative strategies, e.g. type of narrator, metafiction, suspense and use of modality and indeterminacy on the lingustic level. This thesis attempts to illustrate the influence of Hoffmann, who was the pioneer of the fantastic genre, and the above-mentioned elements of the fantastic on the works of Théophile Gautier, who is probably the most representative example of Hoffmannism amongst the French authors.
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