The fantastic voyage in French literature from 1662 to 1789

Abstract

The subject of this study is the fantastic Voyage in French Literature from 1662 to 1789, that is to say a number of works of prose-fiction in which can clearly be recognised a pattern of voyage and discovery, but in which the author (in spite of a somotimes ambiguous attitude) encourages the reader's disbelief in the characters and the adventures recounted. This study therefore aims at being complementary to those of Geoffrey Atkinson on the Extraordinary Voyage. The Fantastic Voyage was felt as an entity by contemporaries, in spite of a certain confusion of issues in the classification of fiction. Its sources are numerous, for it is one of the earliest types of fiction; but the genre underwent during the seventeenth century a definite twist which increased its dependence on contemporary philosophy, either of a rationalistic or of an occultist type. Nevertheless, the existing pattern could also be applied to literary criticism (of an author or a genre) to the satire of manners, or to the spreading of revolutionary ideas; its study therefore has a sociological as well as a literary interest. After an examination of the various types of fantastic Voyages (determined either by the setting or by the philosophical attitude of the author), there is a summary of the salient features of the genre. Finally, there is a bibliography of the works studied within the period considered, which helps one to appreciate the popularity of this type of fiction.