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B R U M A L

Grupo de Estudiossobre lo Fantstico

Vol. I, n 1, primavera/spring 2013, ISSN: 2014-7910

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Brumal,vol. I, n. 1 (primavera/spring 2013), ISSN: 2014-7910

Grupo de Estudios sobre lo Fantstico (GEF)rea de Teora de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada

Despacho: B9/0094Departamento de Filologa EspaolaFacultad de LetrasEdificio BUniversitat Autnoma de BarcelonaCP: 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Valls-Barcelona).Telfono: +34 93 586 8079Fax: +34 93 581 1686http://revistes.uab.cat/brumal

Contacto / Contact:[email protected]@gmail.com

Ferdinando Amigoni (Universit di Bologna, Italia)

Roger Bozzetto (Universit de Provence, Francia)

Rosalba Campra (Universit La Sapienza, Italia)

Julio Checa (Universidad Carlos III, Espaa)

Luis Alberto de Cuenca (CSIC-Madrid, Espaa)

Fernando de Felipe (Universitat Ramon Llull, Espaa)

Vicente Domnguez (Universidad de Oviedo, Espaa)

Jacques Finn (Universit de Zurich, Suiza)

Simone Grossman (Bar Ilan University, Israel)

Jean-Philippe Imbert (Dublin City University, Irlanda)

Jean Marigny (Universit de Grenoble, Francia)

Alicia Mario (UNED-Madrid, Espaa)

Marisa Martins Gama-Khalil (Universidade Federal de Uberlndia, Brasil)

Xavier Prez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Espaa)Vicente Quirarte (Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Mxico)

Carlos Reis (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Susana Reisz (Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, Per)

Clemens Ruthner (Trinity College, Dubln, Irlanda)

Maria Joo Simes (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Karin Volobuef (Universidade Estadual Paulista Araraquara, Brasil)

Diseo y maquetacin /Design and Layout:Esther Correa

Ana Casas (Universidad de Alcal, Espaa)Flavio Garca (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)

Patricia Garca (Trinity College/Dublin City University, Irlanda)

Jos Gich (Universidad del Pacfico, Per)

Dale Knickerbocker (East Carolina University, Estados Unidos)

Raquel Velzquez Velzquez (Universitat de Barcelona, Espaa)

Comit Cientfico / Scientific Committee:

Director / Director: David Roas (Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Espaa)

Jefa de Redaccin / Editor-in-Chief : Teresa Lpez Pell isa (Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Espaa)

Redaccin / Editorial Team:

Coordinador de la seccin de reseas / Coordinator of the Review Section:

Borja Rodrguez Gutirrez (Universidad de Cantabria, Espaa)
http://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalhttp://revistes.uab.cat/brumalmailto:revista.brumal%40gmail.com?subject=mailto:revista.brumal%40gmail.com?subject=mailto:revista.brumal%40gmail.com?subject=http://revistes.uab.cat/brumalmailto:revista.brumal%40gmail.com?subject=

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7 - 14

15 - 35

37 - 56

57 - 78

79 - 101

Monogrfico / Monograph

ElEspacioylofantstico / spacEandthEfantastic(Coord. Patricia Garca)

Presentacin / IntroductionPatricia Garca

The Fantastic Hole: Towards a Theorisation of the Fantastic Transgressionas a Phenomenon of SpacePatricia Garca

Alteraciones y alteridades del espacio en los cuentos de FelisbertoHernndez y Horacio Quiroga: una geopotica de lo fantsticoAudrey Louyer Davo

Lar amargo lar: moradias inslitas nas narrativas de Clarice Lispector ede Murilo RubioMarisa Martins Gama-Khalil

Case di morti. Linterno domestico come spazio perturbante tra il teatroantico e la drammaturgia di Maeterlinck e StrindbergNicola Pasqualicchio

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Lampedusa, roman de Rafael Argullol: un territoire pour le fantastique?Daniel-Henri Pageaux

Literaturas de la certeza y de la duda ontolgica. Propuesta clasicatoriapara la ccin distanciadaAlejo Gabriel Steimberg

Thomas Ligotti: los delirios de una mente rotaSergio Hernndez Roura

Elton Honores (ed.), Lo fantstico en Hispanoamrica(Camilo Fernndez Cozman)

Jos Mara Martnez (ed.), Cuentos fantsticos del Romanticismo hispanoamericano(Dolores Phillips-Lpez)

Marie-Soledad Rodrguez (ed.), Le fantastique dans le cinma espagnolcontemporain

(Rubn Snchez Trigos)

Silvia Zangrandi, Cose dell'altro mondo: percorsi nella letteratura fantastica italianadel Novecento(Niccola Pasqualicchio)

Alvaro Biondi, Il tempo e l'evento: Dino Buzzati e l'Italia magica(Silvia Zangrandi)

notasobrElosautorEs / aboutthEauthors

103 - 112

115 - 134

135 - 156

159 - 162

163 - 167

169 - 171

173 - 178

179 - 183

185 - 188

MiscElnEa / MiscEllanEous

rEsEas / rEviEws

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ElEspacioylofantstico/spacEandthEfantasticCoord. Patricia Garca

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B R U M A L

7

PRESENTACIN

patricia garcaTrinity College Dublin/Dublin City University

[email protected]

Ningn ser existe o puede existir sin que est relacionado dealguna manera con el espacio.

Isaac Newton

El espacio es fundamental por la simple razn de que existimos en l.

Nos denimos y nos denen en relacin a los espacios que nos rodean, y sen-timos la necesidad de acotar, describir, representar y dar signicado al espacioque habitamos. Esta inevitable relacin entre el espacio y la existencia lleva Isaac Newton incluso a trazar una analoga entre lo espacial y lo divino.

Sin olvidar que somos seres sujetos al tiempo, el llamado giro espa-cial en las Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ha reivindicado durante lasltimas dcadas la importancia de la espacialidad para entender la historiadel ser humano y la de sus creaciones artsticas. En la clebre conferencia de1967 titulada Des Espaces Autres, Foucault pronosticaba que nos aden-

trbamos en una era en la que pensar en trminos espaciales iba a ser clavepara comprender el creciente predominio de lo simultneo y la yuxtaposi-cin. Gracias al giro espacial, el espacio dimensin fsica y arquitect-nica pero tambin social, cultural y econmica ya no es un concepto neu-tro, independiente de lo que contiene y por ello inmune a cambios histricos,polticos o estticos. Si desde una perspectiva matemtica es una categorarelativamente estable, desde el ngulo humanista el espacio es sin duda unacategora con historia. Prueba de ello son las distintas concepciones espacia-

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Brumal, vol. I, n. 1 (primavera/spring 2013)8

les en la Antigedad, la Edad Media, el Renacimiento, la Modernidad o laPosmodernidad, as como los diferentes paradigmas del espacio en la histo-ria de la losofa (como las aproximaciones de Aristteles, Leibniz, Kant oHeidegger) y en la historia de la fsica (por ejemplo las teoras de Newtony Einstein). Adems, como Max Jammer y Robert Disalle entre otros handemostrado, incluso el concepto de espacio en fsica ha evolucionado dela mano de las distintas proposiciones loscas y por eso todo estudio deesta dimensin requiere necesariamente una metodologa interdisciplinaria.

En el plano literario, el relativamente reciente inters en la dimen-sin espacial por parte de la Teora Literaria rompe con la tradicin queantepona el tiempo. La primaca de lo temporal se deba en gran par-te a la distincin genrica entre artes espaciales y temporales (entre las

cuales se situara la literatura) que propona Lessing en su ensayo Lao-coonte o los lmites entre la pintura y la poesa (1766). Desde esta pers-pectiva, el texto literario se conceba como una sucesin de palabras, soni-dos y eventos, mientras que por ejemplo la escultura y la pintura ofrecanobjetos yuxtapuestos en el espacio y aprehendidos simultneamente.

En la segunda mitad del siglo XX esta distincin ha sido rebatida por grancantidad de crticos. Numerosas aportaciones tericas, desde el cronotopo deMijail Bajtn hasta La Gocritique de Bertrand Westphal obra que establece lasbases para analizar la interrelacin entre los espacios literarios y la realidad re-

ferencial, con el n de explorar la doble relacin entre el espacio en literatura y laliteratura en el espacio, han demostrado que los espacios seleccionados, des-critos, representados y simbolizados son un valor central del anlisis literario.

Sin embargo, ese giro espacial en Teora de la Literatura parece nohaberse consolidado todava en la crtica de lo fantstico. En Brumal, en-tenderemos como texto fantstico aquel en que se genera una ruptura delas leyes fsicas y lgicas de un marco realista que el lector reconoce comomuy similar a su realidad. Si bien abundan los estudios en los que el espaciofantstico deviene metfora para una multitud de aspectos, como la trans-

gresin genrica, la confrontacin con el dominio del otro o la representa-cin del subconsciente, la lista de estudios centrados en el espacio comodimensin fsica recreada en el texto fantstico es mucho ms restringida.

Campra y Roas, por ejemplo, nos recuerdan la funcin central deesta dimensin en lo fantstico: las referencias espaciales, las descrip-ciones detalladas de lugares, son herramientas clave para que el lectoridentique el espacio descrito como marco realista y as generar esa im-presin de verosimilitud que siempre requiere la transgresin fantstica.

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Presentacin / Introduction

9

En cuanto al eje temtico, la categora espacial es ya mencionada en lasaproximaciones temticas de los estudios fundacionales de Castex, Caillois yTodorov pero aparece junto al tiempo como una nica categora interdepen-diente, formando as el bloque distorsiones del espacio-tiempo. Siguiendoesa lnea que explora la interseccin entre tiempo y espacio, varios estudiosms recientes (Aguirre, Fournier Kiss, May) han identicado el potencial tem-tico de los lugares descritos en el texto, enfatizado la naturaleza cronotpicade algunos escenarios de lo fantstico y han analizado su evolucin en cuantoa la funcin y simbologa que adquieren en distintas etapas de lo fantstico.

Sin embargo, queda el espacio narrativo limitado a ese valor referen-cial y cronotpico? Qu nuevas perspectivas se obtienen al pensar en lo fan-tstico como forma espacial? Estas son las cuestiones que han inspirado el

presente monogrco, dedicado a la relacin entre lo fantstico y el espacio.

***Los dos primeros artculos del monogrco persiguen explorar lneas

tericas para el estudio de la dimensin espacial en lo fantstico. El primerartculo parte de las siguientes preguntas: cmo interviene el espacio ennuestra experiencia de la realidad y, en el terreno ccional, de qu maneraayuda el espacio a construir la impresin de realismo (o ilusin referencial) ennarrativa? En l propongo una conceptualizacin del efecto fantstico como

efecto derivado de la dimensin espacial, en torno a tres conceptos centralesde la espacialidad humana: el cuerpo, la frontera y la jerarqua. El objetivo esexponer la interrelacin de estas tres categoras con lo fantstico a travs deuna serie de ejemplos textuales y cinematogrcos. Estos tres conceptos con-vergen en la gura del agujero, recurrente en el imaginario fantstico, y toposque presento como paradigmtico de la transgresin fantstica del espacio.

A continuacin, Audrey Louyer Davo se centra en varios cuentos deHoracio Quiroga y Felisberto Hernndez y propone una visin espacial de lofantstico que se caracteriza por su dinamismo entre tres ejes: el espacio como

marco realista, el espacio construido a travs de la palabra, y la recepcin,dominio en el que el mundo ccional entra en dilogo con el extratextual.Los dos artculos que le siguen estn dedicados al estudio un tipo de es-

pacio concreto: el espacio domstico. Este escenario cannico de lo fantsticoevoca textos clsicos como La cada de la casa de Usher de E.A. Poe,Otra vueltade tuerca de Henry James, La metamorfosis de Franz Kafka o Casa tomada deJulio Cortzar. Marisa Gama-Khalil dedica su artculo a la representacin del es-pacio domstico en textos fantsticos de los escritores brasileos Murilo Rubioy Clarice Lispector. Partiendo de presupuestos de grandes tericos del espacio

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como son Foucault, Bachelard, Deleuze y Guattari, la autora demuestra que elanlisis de la ambientacin interior favorece la comprensin de lo fantstico.

Por su parte, Nicola Pasqualicchio escoge las obras de los dra-maturgos Maurice Maeterlinck y August Strindberg, y ofrece un ori-ginal ngulo sobre el espacio interior en el gnero teatral. Es estauna de las pocas aportaciones acerca del espacio escnico en el es-casamente explorado territorio de la literatura dramtica fantstica.

Finalmente, el artculo que cierra el monogrco est dedicado al estu-dio espacial de una sola obra. El espacio protagonista es la isla, clsico tropodel imaginario literario en general y del fantstico en particular. Daniel-HenriPageaux elabora un interesante anlisis de la novela Lampedusa (Rafael Ar-gullol, 1981) exponiendo la dimensin fantstica de este texto, lo que per-

mite dilucidar la estructura doble o desdoblada de la novela. En la ltimaparte, Pageaux se detiene en el subttulo una historia mediterrnea paraproponer una posible conuencia entre el motivo de la isla de Lampedusaen el texto de Argullol y el escritor italiano Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Retomando la cuestin que inspiraba este monogrco, qunuevas lecturas se obtienen si adoptamos un ngulo espacial en na-rrativa, cine o teatro fantstico? Con esta variedad de enfoques, len-guas, culturas, gneros, autores, temas y pocas, los artculos que pre-sentamos a continuacin demuestran que el ngulo espacial ayuda

a comprender mejor lo fantstico, sus funciones, efectos y signicados.

R

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Space is fundamental for the simple reason that we exist in it. We de-ne ourselves and are dened by others in relation to the spaces surroundingus, and we feel the need to mark off, describe, represent and give meaningto the space we inhabit. This inevitable relationship between space and exis-tence drove Isaac Newton to even draw an analogy between the spatial andthe divine.

Without forgetting that we are temporally-bound beings, during the

past decades the so-called Spatial Turn in the Humanities and Social Sci-ences has claimed the importance of spatiality in order to understand the his-tory of the human being and of its artistic products. In a famous conference in1967 entitled Des Espaces Autres, Foucault predicted that we were enteringan era in which thinking in spatial terms would be key to understanding theincreasing prominence of the simultaneous and juxtaposed. Thanks to theSpatial Turn, space a physical and architectonic dimension, but also asocial, cultural, economic one is not anymore a neutral concept, indepen-dent from that which is contained in it and therefore immune to historical,

political and aesthetic changes. If from a mathematical perspective, space is arelatively stable category, from a humanist angle it is a category with history.Proof of this lies in the diverse ways of conceiving space in Antiquity, MiddleAges, Renaissance, Modernity or Postmodernity, as well as the different para-digms of space in philosophy (for example the approximations by Aristotle,Leibniz, Kant o Heidegger) and in history of physics (for example the theo-ries by Newton and Einstein). Moreover, as Max Jammer and Robert Disalleamong others have shown, even the concept of space in physics has evolved


11

No being exists or can exist which is not related to spacein some way.

Isaac Newton

INTRODUCTION


[email protected]

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together with the diverse philosophical propositions. Therefore any study ofthis dimension necessarily requires an interdisciplinary methodology.

In the literary domain, relatively recent interest in the spatial dimen-sion in Literary Theory breaks from a tradition that prioritised time. Thisprimacy of the temporal was to a large extent due to a generic distinction be-tween spatial and temporal arts proposed by Lessing in his essay Laocoon:or the Limits of Poetry and Paining (1766), which positioned literature withinthe temporal. From this perspective, the literary text would be conceived as asuccession of words, sounds and events, while for example sculpture or pain-ing offered objects juxtaposed in space and simultaneously apprehended.

In the second half of the 20th century this distinction has been refutedby a great deal of scholars. Manifold theoretical contributions, from Mikhail

Bakthins chronotope to La Gocritique by Bertrand Westphal a work es-tablishing the groundings to analyse the interrelation between literary spaceand referential reality, with the aim of exploring the double relation betweenspace in literature and literature in space, have argued that the selected,described, represented and symbolised spaces are a central value to literaryanalysis.

However, this Spatial Turn in Literary Theory seems not to be con-solidated in the scholarship of the fantastic yet. In Brumal, the fantastic refersto a text, lm, or theatrical piece in which a breach of the physical and logical

laws of the storyworld occurs. This breach takes place within a realistic framethat the reader recognises as very similar to his/her reality.

While there are plenty of studies in which fantastic space becomes ametaphor for a large variety of aspects, such as the transgressions of literarygenres, the confrontation with the domain of the other or the representationof the unconscious, the list of studies focusing on space as physical dimensionrecreated in the fantastic text is much more restricted.

Campra and Roas, for example, remind us of the central function thatthis dimension operates within the literature of the fantastic: spacial referen-

ces and detailed descriptions of places are key devices to enable the reader toidentify with the space presented as realistic, and so to generate that impres-sion of verisimilitude required prior the fantastic transgression.

Regarding space as theme, the spatial category is already mentioned inthe foundational studies by Castex, Caillois and Todorov. However it appearsbound to time as one interdependent category, forming the cluster space-time distortions. Following this train of thought that explores the intersec-tion between time and space, some more recent studies (Aguirre, Fournier

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Kiss, May) have identied the thematic potential of settings. These studiesemphasise the chronotopic nature of some settings and analyse the evolu-tion of the fantastic according to the function and symbolism of these.

However, is narrative space to be limited to that referential or chro-notopic value? What new perspectives can be obtained if the fantastic isthought of as a spatial form? These are the questions which inspired this pres-ent monograph, dedicated to the relation between the fantastic and space.

***The rst two articles of this monograph explore theoretical lines for

the study of the spatial dimension in the fantastic. The rst article stems fromthe following questions: how does space intervene in our experience of rea-

lity and, in the ctional domain, how does space help build the impressionof realism (or referential illusion) in narrative? In it I offer a conceptualisa-tion of the fantastic effect as deriving from the spatial dimension, based onthree central concepts from human spatiality: body, boundary and hierarchy.The aim is to investigate how the fantastic relates to these three categoriesthrough a series of textual and lmic examples. Finally, these three conceptsconverge into the gure of the hole, recurrent in the imaginary of the fantasticand topos presented here as paradigmatic of the fantastic transgression ofspace.

Following this article, Audrey Louyer Davo focuses on several shortstories by Horacio Quiroga and Felisberto Hernndez and proposes a spa-tial vision of the fantastic characterised by its dynamism between three axis:space as realistic frame, space narrated through the word and textual recep-tion, domain in which the ctional world enters a dialogue with the extratex-tual.

The next two articles are dedicated to the study of a specic type ofsetting: domestic space. This canonical setting will undoubtedly evoke clas-sical texts such as E.A. Poes The Fall of the House of Usher, Henry James

The Turn of the Screw, Franz KafkasMetamorphosis, or Julio Cortzars HouseTaken Over. Marisa Gama-Khalil dedicates her article to domestic spacesin fantastic texts by Brazilian authors Murilo Rubio and Clarice Lispector.Based on some of the chief-exponents of space such as Foucault, Bachelard,Deleuze and Guattari, the author shows that the analysis of the interior set-tings provides a better understanding of the fantastic elements.

Next, Nicola Pasqualicchio has selected works by playwrights Mau-rice Maeterlinck and August Strindberg to offer an original angle on interiorspaces in the genre of theatre. His is one of the few contributions on scenic


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space within the almost unexplored territory of fantastic drama.Finally, the article that ends the monograph is dedicated to the spacial

study of one single work. The protagonist space is the island, classic trope ofthe literary imaginary in general and of the fantastic in particular. Daniel-Henri Pageaux elaborates an interesting analysis of the novel Lampedusa (Ra-fael Argullol, 1981) and exposes the fantastic dimension of this text, whichleads him to elucidate the double or doubled up structure of the novel.The last section is dedicated to the novels subtitle a Mediterranean story.Pageaux suggests here a possible conuence between the motif of the islandof Lampedusa in Argullols text with the Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi diLampedusa.

Let us recall the question which inspired this monograph: what new

readings can be obtained if a spatial angle on narrative, cinema or theatre ofthe fantastic is adopted? With this variety of approaches, languages, cultures,genres, authors, topics and poques, the articles that follow demonstrate thata spatial angle helps reach a better understanding of the fantastic; its func-tions, effects and meanings.

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THE FANTASTIC HOLE:

TOWARDS A THEORISATIONOF THE FANTASTIC TRANSGRESSIONAS A PHENOMENON OF SPACE


[email protected]

abstractThis article develops a theoretical foundation for a type of fantastic transgressionthat occurs due to the incursion of an impossible spatial element within a realisticframe shared by narrator and reader. A variety of 19th, 20th and 21st century shortstories and short lms are examined to establish a theoretical outline for this trans-gressive phenomenon, here denominated the fantastic as a phenomenon of space,or the fantastic of space. Three categories of this phenomenon are proposed: thetransgressions of the body and the notion of being (physically and existentially) inspace, of the boundary and the principles of denition and circumscription, andhierarchy, related to the dialogue between container and contained. Ultimately,these three categories meet within one single motif: the fantastic hole, presented as aparadigmatic spatial distortion of the fantastic as a phenomenon of space.

KEywords: fantastic, space, transgression, geocriticism.

rEsuMEn

El objetivo de este artculo es establecer la base terica de una transgresin fantsticaque aqu ser denominada lo fantstico del espacio. Esta transgresin se caracteriza

por la violacin de las leyes fsicas y lgicas que gobiernan nuestro sentido del espa-cio. Ya que en los estudios tericos de lo fantstico la dimensin del espacio no ha sidoconsiderada posible elemento de transgresin, este artculo plantea tres categorasclaras de transgresin fantstica como fenmeno del espacio: cuerpo y la nocin deestar y ser (fsica y existencialmente) inscrito en el espacio; frontera, de la que de-rivan principios como la denicin y circunscripcin; y jerarqua, relacionada conel dilogo entre continente y contenido. Finalmente, estas tres categoras espacialesconuyen en un motivo: el del agujero fantstico, que se presenta como gura para-digmtica de lo fantstico del espacio.palabrasclavE: Lo fantstico, espacio, transgresin, geocrtica.

Aceptado: 29-04-2013Recibido: 18-02-2013


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introduction: thE fantasticasa phEnoMEnonof spacE

I have elsewhere discussed the importance of the notions of place and

space within the studies of the fantastic (Garca 2013a, 2013b). In an articleentitled The Fantastic of Place versus the Fantastic of Space (2013b), I traceda distinction between two theoretical models. In the fantastic of place, aparticular place acted as host of the supernatural, a paradigmatic examplebeing the trope of the haunted house, as observed in texts such as The Manu-script Found in Saragossa (Jan Potocki, 1804) and E.T.A. Hoffmanns The De-serted House (1817). The haunted house, deriving from the Gothic ghoststory, is a recurrent motif in enhancing the premonitory action: it is a tropethat frequently evokes the desired disturbing atmosphere and invokes the

supernatural. However, it has to be born in mind that no matter how impor-tant the atmospheric function of the haunted house is in the story, the placeitself is physically normal and not impossible in accordance with our laws ofphysics. Although the place of action might initially be presented as excep-tional as is the case of The Nameless City (H.P. Lovecraft, 1921) and JorgeLuis Borges city of The Immortal (1949) generally it is later revealed thatthis anomaly is due to the exceptional phenomenon it hosts and not to its ownphysical impossibility. Instead, as in the classic motif of the haunted house,another element (the ghost, for example) breaches the realistic laws.

In the second modality, the fantastic of space, the dimension of spacewas directly involved in generating the supernatural. It was an active agent ofthe fantastic transgression in that some element of it was in itself impossible.An excellent example of this category is La casa (1975), a Kafkian short storyby Peruvian author Jos B. Adolph, which describes how a random housedevours a random individual. The question of where this house is locatedits specic coordinates and attributes is not as relevant as the impos-sible action this house is performing. Therefore, in the fantastic of space,the impossible element instead of taking place in space is an event ofspace,bound to some architectural element or to the normal, logical physicallaws governing this dimension.

The previous articles were a rst step towards the thesis that narrativespace can provoke a fantastic transgression of the impression of realism. AsI showed, scholarship of the fantastic had approached narrative space fromvarious angles but there had been no comprehensive study specically onhow the dimension of space is involved in the disruption of the realistic ef-fect.1 On the other hand, scholarship on space in literature had been predomi-

1 Examples of scholars dealing with the dimension of space in fantastic narrative are Jackson (1981),

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The Fantastic Hole

Brumal,vol. I, n. 1 (primavera/spring 2013)

nantly centred on realistic texts, devoting very little attention to the fantas-tic, which itself was frequently understood as a synonym of any form of thesupernatural.2 My conclusion was that a further insight into the fantasticof space was needed. Since not all transgressions of space are one, a moreextensive analysis would benet from the different thematic variations thatthis phenomenon offered. This task would necessarily imply a more extensivereection on how space intervenes in the human and textual construc-tion of reality.

The present article can be viewed as a follow up to these previous con-clusions; it provides a closer insight into the model ofthe fantastic of space.The described physical spaces in the text will be here not only the scene ofactions (the fantastic of place) but also the impossible elements perform-

ing the fantastic transgression within the ctional reality (the fantastic ofspace). The central issue concerning this article is thus: in what forms canspace transgress the mimetic effect, and so lead to the fantastic effect? Thisrefers to a question that has already gained some prominence in literary criti-cism, which is: how does space help build the impression of realism in narra-tive? In other words: how is a real space narrated?

The existing corpus provides a unanimous answer to this question.Daro Villanueva in his workTheories of Realism (1997), Bertrand Westphal inGeocriticism (2007) and, in the context of fantastic narratives, David Roas in his

introduction to Teoras de lo fantstico (2001) and in his latter theoretical workTras los lmites de lo real (2011), all converge in one aspect: referentiality is thekey notion in building a sense of realistic space, in that the reader contraststhe extratextual space with the spaces depicted in the literary world to esta-blish that they are both similar (until the supernatural irrupts, in the con-text of fantastic ction). The fantastic always presupposes a previously con-structed textual reality that imitates our extratextual reality. That intratextualreality is perceived as realistic by the reader who constantly contrasts it withhis referential one.

The notion of referentiality between ctional and factual space is clearfor a realistic text but how is the lack of spatial reference constructed in a fan-

Aguirre (1990), Campra (2001) and Fournier Kiss (2007). For a more detailed review of existing scho-larship, see the rst part of my article El espacio como sujeto fantstico: el ejemplo de Los palatos(ngel Olgoso, 2007) (2013a).2 For example the proponents of the Theory of Possible Worlds (Pavel 1986, Ryan 1991, Doleel 2008)reect an ambiguous understanding of the fantastic as an umbrella term for the supernatural. Doleel,for instance, does not make any distinction among supernatural worlds, as if taking for granted thatall forms (science ction, the marvellous, the mythical, the fantastic) had the same macrostructuralconstruction.

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tastic text? In order to tackle properly the question of how space intervenesin the construction/destruction of this mimetic contract, perhaps a moree-lemental question should be rst considered, it being: how does the humansense of space help build the human sense of reality?

This cannot be answered without taking into account key notions ofhuman space developed in Human Geography, Phenomenology of Space andAnthropology. Studies such as those by phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945), philosopher Martin Heidegger (1951), anthropologist Otto Fried-rich Bollnow (1963) to mention only the theorists which will be discussedhere in relation to the fantastic, have convincingly argued that space is a fun-damental category in human experience: our apprehension of space directlyinuences our apprehension of reality. Their views will be briey compiled

into three categories to demonstrate how they are applicable to the study offantastic transgression.

1. transgrEssionsofthE bodyin spacE

The rst category of space discussed here in relation to the fantasticrefers to perhaps the simplest, and yet most fundamental, principle of humanspatiality: we are in space. And this notion of being in space is as much physi-cal and situational as it is existential.

The space/body/subject triad has proved to be central in the schemesof the real interpreted under the lens of Phenomenology and Existential Phi-losophy, as seen in, for example, Maurice Merleau-Pontys philosophy on spa-tiality of and in human existence, and in Martin Heideggers existentialapproach to space, particularly as exposed in his piece Building, Dwelling,Thinking (1951).

In his work Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Merleau-Ponty exten-sively elaborates on the perception of reality through the corporeal. He de-velops a phenomenological insight into reality, understood as an experiencemediated through our senses. At the heart of this experience, he argues, is thebody. In his view, the human body is a starting point that anchors all spatialrelationships and experiences of distance, direction and location: When I saythat an object is on a table, I always mentally put myself either in the table orin the object, and I apply to them a category which theoretically ts the rela-tionship of my body to external objects (1962: 101, emphasis in the original).

As expressed in this quote, physical space is an experience both per-ceived and constructed by the individuals corporeal awareness. Of particu-

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lar signicance are the notions of dialogue and interrelation between spaceand body two entities that need each other to construct the experience ofmaterial reality. That the spatial environment is produced by the subject andthe subject is produced by space is the core idea of Merleau-Pontys work,captured by formulas such as the body is our anchorage in a world (1962:144), or the body is our general medium for having a world (1962: 169). Fromthis angle, the human experience of reality is inextricably linked with howthe body perceives space, and conversely with how it perceives itself in space.

The existential awareness of being (a subject) through this dia-logue between body and space is the pivotal thought of Martin Heideggersessay Building, Dwelling, Thinking. As the title indicates, Heidegger elabo-rates on the existential relationship between being and dwelling, originating

from our experience of the built environment. By dwelling, he means in-habiting the world. But more importantly, the corporal experience of beingin space is equated with the act of being aware of the self. In other words, thesubject perceives himself by the space he occupies. The notion of being forHeidegger inseparably encompasses this double existential and situationaldimension, an opposition that, unlike other languages (e.g. the Spanish serand estar), the German (and the English) language merge into one single verb:sein (to be). Heidegger resolves this by simply adding a spatial deictic (da,German for here and there), resulting in his central term Dasein.

The German philosopher thus stresses the interrelation between onto-logy and position, between being and being there, and this ontological aspect tobeing in space is the core of the fantastic transgressions of the body in space.To know that we exist is to know that we have a body that inhabits space andgenerates space, a thought that coincides with Merleau-Pontys view of corpo-real perception as a way of stating I am in the world.

What these phenomenological and existential analyses of space recallis that the notion of physical reality (whether textual or actual) cannot besegregated from that of emplacement, or physical position. As much as there

is no space without a body that experiences it, as Merleau-Ponty argues, thereis also no body if there is no space for it to be in.

In the literary realm, in the volume Raum und Bewegung in der Litera-tur (Hallet & Neumann, 2009) dealing, as the German title indicates, withspace and movement in literature the editors emphasise how the notion ofspatiality (Rumlichkeit) is correlated with that of spatial experience (Raumer-fahrung): there is no space without movement, this latter perceived as the dy-namic act of a subject who observes it and not necessarily as physical displace-

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ment around it (2009: 20-21, 66). Accordingly, space cannot be dissociated fromthe corporal experience of the one who perceives it. For this reason, the co-dependence of body and narrative space should be taken into account inany study on textual spatiality.

In the realm of fantastic ction, many short stories can be evoked toshow how this basic relation of body in space is breached. As a result, thefantastic transgression derives from a failed inscription of the human bodyin space, frequently leading to a new existential plane, or to an existentialredenition of the subject. An example is the aforementioned La casa (JosB. Adolph, 1975), an anthropophagous space that progressively devours thebody of its inhabitant, who, to the readers surprise, celebrates his forthcom-ing state of being without a body. Other sample texts are El museo (Jos

Mara Merino, 1982) and La habitacin maldita (Fernando Iwasaki, 2004),where the force of the space prevents the subject from leaving or movingfreely inside and out of it. This museum-house in the rst case, and hotelroom in the second, entrap the main character, who literally becomes partand property of that space. The same motif of a space which acts as amagnet to the body is found in short stories such as Stephen Kings 1408(2002), in which a doomed hotel room tortures he who is inside, manipulatinghis thoughts and preventing him from leaving, or in novels like The Haunt-ing of Hill House (Shirley Jackson, 1959), the title of which refers to a mansion

which decides when and how things occur inside (The gates are locked. HillHouse has a reputation for insistent hospitality; it seemingly dislikes lettingits guests get away, 1999: 67).

The most literal representation of the disappearance of the subject inspace is found in a short story by British writer James Graham Ballard calledThe Enormous Space (1989). In it, a man isolated from the world narrateshow he slowly feels himself dissolve into the space of his house or, as he putsit, ceases to be who he was to become the house.

A similar fantastic transgression takes place in Valle del silencio

(1982) by Spanish author Jos Mara Merino. The disappearance of Marcel-lus is later resolved when his friend realises he has fused into the rock ofa cave: [] under the humid moss that Lucius Pompeius ngers separated,an eyelid appeared and an eye opened after that amazement of absolute self-absorption. [] Marcellus body had incorporated in the very substance ofthe valley (1982: 84).3

3 All translations from non-English short stories non-referenced in the bibliography are mine

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Another character who undergoes a similar fate is the narrator of LeCorps parpill (1991) by Quebecois Michel Dufour, who wakes up onemorning to feel his body not only dispersed all over the room, but being eachobject in it: Besides, in my position, I cannot go too far. As an object that oneends up forgetting by force of habit, I am from now on part of the setting(1991: 100).

As a last example of this category, the short lmMarisa (2009) by Span-ish director Nacho Vigalondo is worth mentioning. It starts with the story ofa woman, Marisa, whose mood oscillates according to the different placesshe is. While this might seem quite ordinary initially, her gets more compli-cated when the narrator tells us that after a while her entire persona becomessusceptible to the changes of position in space: depending on where she is

located, she becomes different Marisas (her changes of personality relatedto her position in space, with a sensibility of less than a square meter, nar-rator in Marisa). The narrators struggle to nd his Marisa, and thus herspecic physical position in space, starts here: after a while, he discovers herspecic coordinates, which turn out to be in a playground quite far from theirhome town. At this stage, the fantastic has already irrupted, with a transgres-sion of the notion being in space: Marisa is different people, dependingon where her body is located. When Marisa is at the playground, she is theperson whom the narrator had met: his Marisa. Therefore, position literally

encompasses physical as well as existential emplacement. To be out of placeis interpreted literally in this short lm as being someone else. The situationgets even more complicated: Marisa starts changing identity even when she isstill in the same spot. At that particular moment, the narrator realises that hewould have to nd Marisa not only in the right place but also at the right time.

If the body is a central referential axis for man to apprehend the physi-cal space around him, this apprehension is realised by demarcating himselffrom the external world (hence the double physical-experiential dimension).The process of demarcation inherently refers to the notion of boundary.

2. transgrEssionsofthE physical boundary bEtwEEn spacEs

In order to apprehend what surrounds us that which we call real-ity we strive to articulate it in a more or less coherent system. In this pro-cess, a central spatial ally is the notion of boundary. An illustrative exampleof this phenomenon goes back to the historical evolution of the concept ofspace from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It is in this last period that

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the rise of geographical knowledge was made possible largely through thetechniques of measurement of physical space (and time): the compass, thetelescope and the Ptolemaic map brought drastic changes that reconguredthe world-view. As David Harvey reminds us, the Ptolemaic map played acentral role in the Renaissance, since it located all the countries of the worldin a single spatial frame, and in so doing presented the globe as knowabletotality (1990: 246). By imagining what the globe would be if looked at by ahuman eye, Ptolemy was also implicitly reasserting an alleged objectivityof optics and the capability of the individual to represent truthfully whathe or she sees. Through a (supposedly) objective representation, space wasconceived as containable and conquerable, and what is more important, real-ity would be something objective that all viewers would share (a thought

completely refuted in Postmodernity).This delimitation of space through knowledge which equates to an

alleged domination of reality: space, time and nature was a necessary con-dition for human development. It favoured the emergence of some of the mostinuential theories on spatiality (Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes), culminat-ing in the scientic revolution of the seventeenth century, in particular theNewtonian theory of space and time being absolute categories.

This need for delimitation became a synonym of knowledge and con-trol over reality. A similar phenomenon is already found in the scheme of the

real of Ancient Greece. The horos, boundary, limit or frontier, is whatarticulated the otherwise boundless and chaotic something. Thejorisms, orhorizon, was the limit of physical space that the eye could meet (the Kosmos),and beyond this articulating boundary laid the inapprehensible: the innite(the Kaos).4

The eld of Anthropology of Space offers plenty of other examples ofhow, in the history of humanity, the experience of the real has been equatedwith that of bounded space. Anthropologist and philosopher of space O.F.Bollnow explains how the horizon a fusion between the body and the

boundary as axis of the spatial experience was a physical as well as anontological limit for many ancient civilisations: [] beyond the borders ofthe known inhabited realm, the world simply stops, 2011: 60). Drawing onprevious explorations of the concept of space in ancient Egypt, Bollnow em-

4 The Platonic jorisms is the boundary between the world of ideas and the physical world. Mostinteresting here is Aristotles view of thejorisms as that which divides the Physis (that which is seen)andMetaphysics (that which cannot be seen). Beyond thatjorisms, scientic knowledge is impossible.Therefore knowledge is equated and dependant upon the jorisms. There is no science beyond andwithout that boundary (Le Problme de ltre chez Aristote, Pierre Abuenque, 1962).

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phasises that only the space delimited by the human eye was conceived as anontological possibility, as reality. Beyond that founded terrain was the sur-rounding chaos, conceived as an unknown domain that did not belong to thereal. Rather than a space, this chaos was space-less (2011: 61).

It is through the notion of a referential boundary that spatial opposi-tions such as up/down and in/out are conceived. Without this boundary,space becomes an incomprehensible and unattainable something and, inthe absence of any referential system of coordinates, the notion of distanceand location would have no meaning. As Roas reminds us, man needs to en-close [acotar in the Spanish original] his world in order to function in it (2011:35). As a result, the human perception of reality necessarily needs a stable andreferential boundary through which orientation, measurement and articula-

tion are made possible.In the ctional storyworld, this notion is related to narrative frames

that structure the different spaces composing the recreated physical envi-ronment. Having established that the boundary is a crucial device for thehuman in the experience of space, it is easy to understand why it is also animportant realistic device within the ctional text. This impression of realismconstructed by a set of spatial frames is precisely that which the followingfantastic texts destabilise.5

Within the corpus of the literary fantastic, there is a large variety of

narratives calling into question the boundary as constructing relations of dis-tance, reference and location. Quim Monzs La fora centrpeda (1996) andDavid Roas Excepciones (2010) are clear and complementary examples ofthis. The rst story describes a man who nds himself back in his living roomevery time he tries to cross the threshold out of his house. Roas story is itsantagonist; he even dedicates his text to Quim Monz (to Quim Monz, fromthe other side of the threshold, 2010: 135). In it, every time the protagonisttries to cross the threshold into his house, he nds himself outside again. Itcan be noted how the threshold in these two short stories functions as a de-

stabilising agent: instead of framing space living room/corridor, or street/hall it transgresses the expected delimitation between places.

Another interpretation of the transgression of spatial boundaries isfound in texts which play with the idea of a lack of boundary and so of cir-

5 This is the principle used in the impossible buildings painted by M.C. Escher (e.g. Belvedere Litho-graph, 1958), by Giovanni Battista Piranesis Prisons (1750) or Sandro Del Pretes Inverted Chessboard(1975). In all these constructions, the very notion of boundary for inside/outside, here/there andabove/under is cancelled out. This gives rise to a series of visual topological paradoxes.

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cumscription. Boundless structures are the railways on which the trains ofTandis que roule le train (ric Faye, 1997), Le Tunnel (Jacques Sternberg,1974) and La Sanction (Jacques Sternberg, 1974) circulate. The passengersanxiety derives from the fact that they are on a journey with no envisagedend. They roll on a seemingly endless railway recreating the vertigo of aninnite, unbound structure, where no reference is permanent or reliable andno end is conceivable.

There are also examples of this type of transgression in cinema. In ananimated short lm entitled Skhizein (Jrmy Clapin, 2008), Henry, the pro-tagonist and narrator, tells of how a meteorite has impacted his life: he isnow exactly ninety-one centimetres from [himself] narrator in Skhizein. Asecond meteorite displaces him further: where the rst one had provoked a

slippage sideways, this second one provokes a slippage of seventy-ve centi-metres downwards. As a result, he has to learn to live literally displaced fromall the objects and people which surround him. The distances he experiencesare not the real ones; the referential system of coordinates he had until now,shared with the rest of humans, is not valid anymore. He now has to learnto mark new distances with chalk to avoid bumping into objects and people.After his displacement, Henry emphasises how he would like to reverse theslippage and nd his place once again, expressing his desire to return to thecommon shared system of references of distances between things in space.

3. transgrEssionsof spatial hiErarchyand containMEnt

Apart from the notions of distance and denition, there is a furtheraspect deriving from the relational system of boundaries which needs to beexamined. This aspect concerns the organisation of spaces in a hierarchicalorder, and thus how this expected hierarchy can be transgressed.It is usefulin this sense to recall Ryans denition of literary spatial frames as: the im-mediate surroundings of actual events, the various locations shown by thenarrative discourse or by the image (Ronens settings [1986]; Zorans eldsof vision [1984]) (Ryan, 2013: 9). These surroundings are delimited by spa-tial boundaries (clear-cut or fuzzy) and are also hierarchically organized byrelations of containment (a room is a subspace of a house) (Ryan, 2013: 9).

Logically, but perhaps not remarked upon enough, the order in whichspatial frames are classied hierarchically is fundamental to generating therealistic effect within the literary text. When presenting or presented witha literary world that follows realistic conventions, the author or reader per-

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forms this process almost automatically, in that it is recognised or assumedthat, for example, Raskolnikovs garret (Crime and Punishment, 1866) is con-tained in a larger structure: the guesthouse. This guesthouse is at the sametime part of a larger frame (the city of St. Petersburg), which also belongs to abroader container, etc.6

Among the most studied obliterations of hierarchical systems in post-modern literature are those of metalepsis and metaction. If, by logic, textualreality is part of extratextual reality, a large variety of texts seek to challengethis hierarchical relation, particularly playing upon hierarchies concerningembedded ctional levels. Jumps, loops, recursion, innite regress and self-references among the interplay between ctional levels are forms of disrupt-ing the principle of spatial hierarchy.

The scholarship dealing with these transgressions in the fantastic(Brooke-Rose, 1981; Erdal Jordan, 1998; Horstkotte, 2004; Rodrguez Hernn-dez, 2010) has emphasised that these strategies represent the fracture betweenlanguage and reality after the Language Turn or, as Erdal Jordan puts it, theyimpose the linguistic reality as option over the empirical one (Erdal Jordan,1998: 123). In a fantastic mode, the strategies of metalepsis and metactionhave been exploited by the canonical text of Lost in the Funhouse (JohnBarth, 1968), where the protagonist is entrapped in a funhouse that is equatedwith the space of a book that never ends. Also in another text, Continuidad

de los parques (Julio Cortzar, 1956), what the character reads has an ef-fect upon the space from which he is reading it the reality of the character.This transgression violating the principle of containment of the ctional textwithin factual reality reects Derridean ideas concerning the autonomy ofthe text in relation to the real, the pure self-reexivity of language and theabsence of all implication of the text in the world.

An interesting variation of the traditional metalepsis in the fantasticreplaces the embedded ctional level with virtual space. The jumps acrosshierarchical levels take place between the realistic domain and the virtual.

This leads to plots where, for example, cybernetic creatures trespass into therealistic domain within the text, such as the articial monster of Intimidadciberntica (Jos Mara Merino, 2002), a creature that one day replaces hiscreator.

6 Note how narrative space, in particular the various embedded spatial frames, is employed in theopening ofCrime and Punishment to locate the reader in a verisimilar space: On an exceptionally hotevening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. place and walkedslowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge. He had successfully avoided meeting his landladyon the staircase. His garret was under the roof of a high, ve-storied house and was more like a cupboardthan a room (Dostoyevsky 2000: 3, emphasis added).

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Other texts disrupt automatic associations of spatial relations of con-tainment, not of embedded ctional levels but exclusively of space presentedas physical within the storyworld. To start with, a classic example is the egg-shaped object of The Crystal Egg, by H.G. Wells (1897). This transparentegg transgresses the logical principle of spatial hierarchies since, despite itsrelatively small dimensions, it contains a whole society of Martians.

Inspired by this short story, which borders the connes of science c-tion, is Borges The Aleph (Jorge Luis Borges, 1949). The narrator of this well-known short story discovers in the basement a point in space containing allpossible angles of the world: Each thing (a mirrors face, let us say) was in-nite things, since I distinctly saw it from every angle of the universe (1999:192). This sort of (key)hole enables a total view of space and time; it contains

the world, accessible from an absolute gaze. The transgression of the physi-cal laws of space which Borges is presenting is thus based on the followingtwo paradoxes: the rst is the same as that exemplied by the crystal egg.The aleph, physically speaking, has constricted specic dimensions like akeyhole, we imagine but at the same time it is the container of a space largerthan itself.Second, the contained is not only larger but is total and absolute,representing the paradox of containing the innite within the nite. This isthe logical problem encountered by the narrator when he has to describe thealeph: how can he express an innite image within the nite extension of

words and the limited dimensions of the page?The gure of the aleph confronts the narrator and reader with a vision

where all spatial (and temporal) tools (e.g. orientation, reference and selection)that human beings possess to make sense of physical space and to representit are eradicated. To express this impossible vision, the narrator employs dif-ferent rhetorical devices: disjointed reiterations, lists of enumerations of whathe simultaneously sees (I saw), absolute quantiers (each, every, all)and, most interestingly for this analysis, a juxtaposition of the relationships ofcontainment. Thus, the part and the whole are placed in the same hierarchy:

a copy of the rst English translation of Pliny [...] and all at the same timesaw each letter on each page (1999: 193). The Aleph, inspired by Wells eggcontaining an entire world, represents a reduction of the space of the worldby inverting the relation of whole and part, container and contained.

A large part of Borgesian ctions are based on the same principle ofmaking the large t into the small . It is found in The House of Asterion(1949): Each part of the house occurs many times; any particular place isanother place. [] The house is as big as the worldor rather, it is the world

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(1999: 221), and in The Man on the Threshold (There is a saying, you knowthat India is larger than the world, 1999: 270). Also The Library of Babel(1941) and The Book of Sand (1975) and are further examples of structuresthat play upon the principle of container-contained, nite in their physicaldimensions and innite in what they contain; where each part contains thewhole and the whole is simultaneously part of itself.

Another variation of the transgression of logical spatial hierarchies iswhat could be called the motif of the self-enclosed space. An excellent exam-ple is Dejen salir (1982) by Spanish author Jos Ferrer-Bermejo. This shortstory proposes a cancellation of hierarchies by interlocking various spatialframes. This turns into a Mbius effect, a self-referential structure a metrostation where inside and outside lose their polarity. The story tells of the

following event: the character and focaliser of Dejen salir is conned with-in a metro station in the city of Madrid. There seems to be no way out, as thetitle indicates, since he is constantly drawn back to his point of departure.Already entrapped in this looping space when the narration starts, he nallysurrenders and accepts that it is not a lapse of concentration on his part buta fact: no matter how many tunnels he goes across and stairs he goes upand down, he always ends up at the same point of departure, with the samescenes repeating over and over again. There is no access back to the street andthe city, which would be the higher level in the spatial hierarchy: there is no

outside or inside, since it is all one single self-referential surface. The spatialdichotomy of in/out is thus invalidated: since inside is not a possibility forthe character, outside loses its meaning in opposition to it.

To conclude the outline of the fantastic of space, the focus will turnto a recurrent trope in the fantastic where the three categories of body,boundary and hierarchy meet at once; the fantastic hole.

4. thE fantastic holEas tropEofthE fantasticof spacE

The concern of the fantastic since its origins in the positivistic era of thelate 18th century has been to give voice to precisely that which the discourseof reason could not codify. A visual and textual image that very clearly illus-trates this concern is the hole, an image that recurs in the fantastic text fromits origins to its postmodern manifestations. As Neus Rotger has suggested(2003), the gure of the hole embodies the subversive essence of the fantasticin that it perforates the rational discourse of the positivistic conception ofreality that predominated during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The fantastic hole reveals the inconsistencies of a (supposedly) coherent and

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solid structure. This metaphorical relation between the perforation and thefantastic makes this motif an archetype of the fantastic of space.

The most common understanding of the word hole relates to cavitiesin material structures. The rst entry of the Collins English Dictionary is per-foration of a solid surface and similarly the Oxford English Dictionary givesa hollow place, cavity, excavation. Extended, this denition can be appliedto biological structures; that is, an empty hollow space in an existent organ(Oxford English Dictionary). The issue of biological voids and psychoanalyti-cal theory is extensively discussed in The Uncanny by Freud (1919), wherehe points to the symbolic potential of holes: their multiplicity of meaningscan evoke anxiety, in particular because of their lack of explicit reference orvoid. Leaving aside this psychoanalytical approach, Freud rightly suggests

that the gure of the hole recalls a presence through the ascertainment of itsabsence; it is precisely this oscillation between absence and presence, not asdichotomy but rather as coexisting principles, that renders the hole a trans-gressive gure in the human imaginary.7

Of use in elaborating on this aspect is Michel Foucaults concept ofheterotopia. In his essay Des Espaces Autres (1967) he analyses the waydifferent civilisations have dealt in spatial terms with the different or ex-traordinary. According to Foucault, this has been carried out by situatingthe different and extraordinary in what he calls heterotopias, these being

physical containers (with or without clear geographical markers) where in-dividuals whose behaviour is deviant in relation to the required mean ornorm are placed (Foucault, 1986: 25). Heterotopias are places allocated bysociety to individuals in a state of crisis (death and cemeteries, madness andpsychiatrics, etc.). However, Foucaults use of the heterotopia relates to thesocio-historical dimension and not to the literary one. For this reason, themore restricted notion of fantastic hole as archetypical image of the fan-tastic of space is preferred in this article, which nevertheless draws from theFoucauldian heterotopia.

The fantastic hole can be understood as a heterotopic gure in that itis the physical form of the non-empirically perceptive or rationalised: thatwhich does not t within a given socio-cultural frame. Furthermore, it is aliminal space which transgresses binaries, articulating absence and presence,oscillating between the lack of meaning and the excess of it.

7 Note the parallels with Grivels conception of the fantastic as arising from the visual crumbling ofa place previously conceived as full: the place does not hold, one knows, its substance dissipates, wilts,disintegrates. (Grivel in Founier Kiss, 2007: 143).

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ulations. And so these hideouts are portrayed as an extension beyond theirconned framed space; they are worlds without limits (Fernndez Cubas,2008: 67) and refuges where the girls have a strange immunity (2008: 66).But most importantly, these are the spaces of alterity against the norm. It is inthis last aspect that the discourse of the fantastic is located. From the start, theexistence of these spaces is incomprehensible to the narrator and not viewedas a natural part of her environment. These mysterious conduits whose un-derstanding escaped [them] (2008: 66) challenge the discourse of reason: Allsorts of images of the dangerous adventure I just lived were still spinning inmy head but, above all, a large amount of questions for which, no matter howhard I tried, I couldnt nd any satisfactory answer (2008: 65).

Since these spaces constitute a referential void, they have no precise

word allocated to them in our compendium of signiers. As a result, theirreferentiality is constructed through the technique ofcatachresis:they are as-signed a term of something existing in the actual real world that bears physi-cal and conceptual resemblance to them. In this respect, note the variety ofcatachrestic designations to refer to these spaces: hideouts (2008: 66), con-duits (2008: 66), paths (2008: 67) or refuges (2008: 69). The distortion ofthe sense of physical position is best captured in a sentence in which Ftimaseeks to explain the phenomenon of these hideouts: We were there but wewerent. Even if you thought we were there, we werent there (2008: 65). These

spaces cancel spatial dichotomies, in this case the location here-there, by be-ing both simultaneously. The illogical concatenation of the two statementsevacuates the reference of the adverb of place there. Where is there? Thereader cannot establish the specic emplacement of the character since theholes are neither here nor there.

b) Boundary:

The fantastic hole also challenges the ordinary framing function ofphysical space since it perforates what in extratextual reality would be aneven, solid space. The representation of this perforation of human reason of-ten coincides with the metaphor of a physical structure that disappears: anunexpected hole in material space, a crack in the discourse of reason. This isthe case of the house of La casa feliz (Jos Mara Merino, 2004), a buildingthat disappears as it pleases just when it is about to be inhabited. This no-madic structure refuses to be bound to the physical laws that anchor it to theground. Another illustrative example is Lrreur (1974) by Belgium JacquesSternberg, a text that tells of a man who returns home to realise that his buil-

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ding, number 64, has disappeared. On his street, number 62 is now adjacentto number 66. Even in the unlikely event that his house was demolished dur-ing the day, there should be an empty surface between 62 and 66 indicatingthat his building once took up space. The fantastic hole, thus, is not only theabsence of the building but that impossible cancellation of space between theneighbouring buildings 62 and 66. What is remarkable is how the charactertries to make sense of the fantastic event by attributing it to a trick playedby his mind, an error on his conscience, something forgotten (Lrreur,Sternberng, 1998: 94), as if a loophole in the structure of his memory had beenprojected onto physical reality. Therefore, the fantastic hole is not only pre-sent in physical space but may be viewed as a aw of his mind, consistingof multiple mental slippages. This presents an interesting inversion of the

traditional fantastic scheme that portrays a character as a victim of the impos-sible occurrence, to a subject who is at least partially also a causing agent of thefantastic; in other words, a subject who is conscious of his own limitations inthe apprehension of the real.

The hole is also visible in a classic motif of the fantastic that can beidentied as the pierced map, namely when the place in question is no-where to be found in maps: it is a void in the referential space to which themap alludes. This is the case, for example, of Castle Dracula (1847), of the RuedAuseuil (The Music of Erich Zann, Lovecraft, 1922) and of the village of

Innsmouth (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft, 1931).

I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality ofthe Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to com-pare with our own Ordnance Survey Maps. (Dracula, Stoker, 2003: 6)

I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet havenever again found the Rue dAuseil. These maps have not been mod-ern maps alone, for I know that names change. I have, on the contrary,delved deeply into all the antiquities of the place, and have personallyexplored every region, of whatever name, which could possibly answerto the street I know as the Rue dAuseuil. (The Music of Erich Zann,

Lovecraft, 1984: 56)Any reference to a town not shewn on common maps or listed

in recent guide-books would have interested me, and the agents oddmanner of allusion roused something like real curiosity. (The ShadowOver Innsmouth, Lovecraft 1993: 217)

c) Hierarchy:

Third, the fantastic hole plays upon an inversion of logical spatialhierarchies, since its inside could be unexpectedly larger than its external

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dimensions. Because the hole hides, it evokes. This idea of potentiality height-ened by an excess of meaning can be interpreted in the Heideggerian sense.The fantastic holes can be regarded as potential sources of anxiety since theyframe an absence (physical, ontological, epistemological). As the German phi-losopher suggested, [a] boundary is not that at which something stops but,as the Greeks recognised, the boundary is that from which something beginsits presencing (Heidegger, in Bhabha, 1994: 1). This also relates to BertrandWestphals statement that to point at/to demarcate [signaler, in theFrenchoriginal] emptiness, it is to start lling it (2011b: 77).

Precisely this is the central theme of La casa ciega (David Roas, 2010).The character becomes obsessed with the inside of a boarded house he seesfrom the train in his regular journey to work. Anxiety increases when he

realises, through his binoculars, that the boarded windows and doors of thehouse are fake, painted on the surface. The boarded house functions as somesort of Pandoras box. Even if the story cannot be said to be strictly from thefantastic, since there is nothing explicitly impossible, the protagonists fearis symptomatic of an ontological uncertainty related to that which he cannotsee: the constricted space of the house functions as an empty and blind holeon which to project a multitude of possibilities.

conclusion

The aim of this article has been to establish the theoretical foundationsof a phenomenon where fantastic transgression was directly interlinked withthe dimension of space represented in the literary text. This phenomenon,also labelled here as the fantastic of space, has been explored in relationto three categories: fantastic transgressions of the body in space, transgres-sions of spatial boundaries and transgressions of spatial hierarchy. These arefundamental phenomenological and philosophical aspects that intervene inthe human apprehension of reality. Furthermore, these spatial categories arethree basic elements that play a central role in the construction of literaryrealism and relate to other narratological categories such as character (forbody), frame (for boundary) and organisation of the elements in the sto-ryworld (for hierarchy). These three thematic lines are distinct and yet com-plementary and provide a structure for derivative transgressions related tospace, such as the physical disappearance of spaces, animations of buildings,or obliteration of distances, volumes and dimensions.

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Finally, the gure of the fantastic hole has been introduced as a para-digm of the fantastic of space. As explored through the various examplesof the traditional and postmodern fantastic, this gure merges the three cat-egories. The hole is then, in my view, the fantastic trope which best captureshow the changes of corporeal position, architectural boundaries and spatialhierarchies within the text de-automatise the readers relationship to space,transgressing the illusion of verisimilitude.

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B R U M A L

ALTERACIONES Y ALTERIDADES DEL ESPACIO

EN LOS CUENTOS DE FELISBERTO HERNNDEZY HORACIO QUIROGA:UNA GEOPOTICA DE LO FANTSTICO

audrEy louyEr davoUniversit de Reims Champagne-Ardennes

[email protected]

rEsuMEn

Este trabajo contempla la relacin entre el espacio fsico y lo fantstico segn tres ejesprincipales: el eje referencial, narrativo y de la recepcin. Los aplicamos al estudio devarios cuentos de Horacio Quiroga y Felisberto Hernndez para explicar la impresinde lo fantstico que sugieren sus textos a travs de una concepcin de lo fantsticocomo paso o pasaje. El espacio se revela as ser el marco de lo posible, el lugar altera-

do por la escritura y el campo de confrontacin entre diferentes concepciones de losmundos posibles. Desarrollamos, pues, un concepto de geopotica de lo fantstico,que analiza estos aspectos que surgen de la escritura de nuestros autores a partir deuna perspectiva europea.

palabrasclavE: Quiroga, Hernndez, pasaje, alteracin, geopotica, fantstico

abstract

This work considers the relationship between physical space and fantastic literaturethrough three main perspectives: setting, narrative techniques and reception. They

are applied to the study of several of Horacio Quirogas and Felisberto Hernndezsshort stories to explain the effect of the fantastic suggested by their texts, consideringit as a passage. This way, space can be the scene where the action takes place in theframework of a possible world, a place altered by the way of writing, or an area ofconfrontation between different conceptions of possible worlds. We develop, from aEuropean point of view, a concept of the geopoetic of the fantastic, which analyzesthese aspects that arise from these authors way of writing.

KEywords: Quiroga, Hernndez, passage, alteration, geopoetic, fantastic

Recibido: 13-02-2013Aceptado: 10-04-2013


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Hay algo paradjico en la idea de examinar el espacio cuando el objetode estudio, el cuento fantstico, es una creacin hecha de palabras y no unobjeto materialmente visual como lo sera un cuadro, una foto o una pelcula.Si es verdad que en cierta poca el anlisis del tiempo tuvo su momento degloria, que se ilustr con los conceptos desarrollados por los estructuralistas,verdad es que su correlativo, el espacio, se ha quedado al margen hasta elllamado spatial turn de los aos ochenta. Y este espacio es sumamente im-portante a la hora de reexionar sobre lo fantstico, ya que se suele denireste ltimo como una dimensin nueva creada a partir del marco de lo real, omejor dicho de lo posible, y que se inscribe en detalles, imgenes o lugares re-conocibles e identicables por el lector. Los dos autores elegidos para nuestroestudio tienen como puntos comunes su nacionalidad, la poca en que escri-

bieron (primera mitad del siglo XX) y que ambos plantean el problema de serreconocidos o no como autores que cultivan lo fantstico.1 Nuestro objetivoen este artculo ser analizar las posibles relaciones que se establecen entreambos y conrmar, a partir de un anlisis del espacio y de su relacin con lofantstico, la pertenencia a dicho gnero de varios de sus cuentos. 2

Antes de ir ms lejos, es imprescindible precisar qu denicin de lofantstico vamos a utilizar a lo largo de este texto: en efecto, por ser numero-sas las concepciones de lo fantstico, segn las pocas, las reas geogrcas,las corrientes o tendencias analticas, hay que delimitar los trminos que uti-

lizamos para hablar de lo fantstico. La nuestra radica en la teora de Roas(2011) y viene completada por Muoz Rengel (2009): se trata de concebir lofantstico como una brecha en nuestro paradigma de realidad, a travs de lasintaxis o la metaccin, que conduce a un miedo metafsico o intelectual, ycuestiona nuestra percepcin de lo cotidiano; y menos que el tema propia-mente dicho, lo fantstico estriba en la manera de tratarlo. Aadiremos queesta brecha nos parece fundamental cuando hablamos de efecto fantstico,

1 En el caso de Felisberto Hernndez, por ejemplo, Italo Calvino y Julio Cortzar mantienen po-siciones encontradas acerca de esta cuestin. Por una parte, arma Cortzar que La calicacin deliteratura fantstica me ha parecido siempre falsa, incluso un poco perdonavidas en estos tiemposlatinoamericanos en que sectores avanzados de lectura y de crtica exigen ms y ms realismo com-

bativo. Releyendo a Felisberto he llegado al punto mximo de este rechazo de la etiqueta fantsti-ca (Hernndez, 1975: 7). Por otra, dice Calvino en el prefacio a las obras completas del autor queste lleg a conquistar un lugar propio entre los cultores del cuento fantstico hispanoamericano (Hernndez 1997: 25-26). Y por lo que se reere a Quiroga, muchos de sus cuentos forman parte delo maravilloso o se reeren al mundo infantil, de ah la necesidad de mencionar los textos elegidos.2 Esencialmente en Las Hortensias, La casa inundada, El balcn, El acomodador, Tierrasde la memoria, Por los tiempos de Clemente Colling , La pelota, Muebles El Canario y Lasdos historias, en el caso de Felisberto Hernndez, en El vampiro, El espectro, El hijo, El almo-hadn de pluma, A la deriva, El sncope blanco, El solitario y Los buques suicidantes, porlo que se reere a Horacio Quiroga.

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ya que dicha brecha se podra interpretar como un pasaje hacia otra cosa,a una realidad imposible pero que existe en el tejido de palabras y fascina allector.

Los ejes de estudio para la relacin que une el espacio y lo fantsticoa partir de esta denicin implican tener en cuenta el contexto de escritura,de recepcin, la herencia cultural de los autores. Suponen tambin recordarque somos lectores europeos de una realidad hispanoamericana diferente denuestra realidad, de ah la idea de alteridad. En la medida en que nuestro es-tudio se centrar en la acepcin fsica del espacio, tambin nos parece conve-niente llevar a cabo nuestro trabajo utilizando instrumentos de la geografa,sobre todo a partir de diversos conceptos estudiados por Collot (2011) y Baron(2011).

Llegamos a la pregunta siguiente: en qu medida un estudio geofan-tstico de una seleccin de cuentos permite revelar sus rasgos fantsticos,convirtindolos en taller de invencin de formas alteradas del espacio? Asser nuestro viaje por las obras de Quiroga y Hernndez: si, en un primermomento, el espacio es en muchos casos un escenario verosmil y posible queconstituye el contexto de realizacin del efecto fantstico, limitarse a un meromarco sera reductor. En efecto, el espacio puede ser un actor de lo fantstico,en una dinmica de transgresin: las alteraciones de lo posible. Ahora bien,tratar el aspecto fsico del espacio tampoco es sinnimo de reducir el estudio

a una descripcin, por lo que nalmente nos preguntaremos: Dnde est lofantstico? Cmo pensar la alteridad gracias al espacio?

1. Espacio-EscEna: ElMundoobsErvado

Veamos primero cmo aparece el espacio nombrado en nuestros textosy cul es su papel: intentemos una cartografa de lo fantstico, empezandopor el espacio-marco y terminando por el espacio construido.

1.1. El espacio, marco de verosimilitud

El espacio vivido por el autor aparece transcrito en su obra para crearun con-texto, una escenicacin de la accin en la que lo fantstico puedeinmiscuirse para crear el sentimiento de lo ominoso. Segn advierte MuozRengel (2009: 11), El relato fantstico busca ante todo la verosimilitud, cons-truir un escenario lo ms parecido posible a nuestra habitual interpretacindel mundo, porque slo en ese universo de leyes naturales podr cuestionarel alcance y la validez de stas. El papel del espacio consiste aqu en crear uncontexto plausible que el lector se crea.

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En los textos de Quiroga, la toponimia contribuye a este efecto. Una re-gin como Misiones, ciudades como Resistencia o la mencin del ro Paran,sugieren lugares reales en los cuentos A la deriva, El alambre de pa oYagua. Pero a veces, los lugares no necesitan ser nombrados para crear unaimpresin de autenticidad y constituir un marco espacial de referencia parael lector. En el caso de Felisberto Hernndez, y a menudo ya en el ttulo delcuento, vienen evocados los espacios citadinos y familiares, como el balcn,la casa (aunque inundada), la habitacin de un hotel, el tranva, y stos danuna impresin de lo cotidiano que permite al lector representarse el espa-cio para apropirselo mejor, generndose as un ambiente conocido antes decrear el desfase con lo fantstico.

La casi totalidad de los relatos de Felisberto Hernndez suceden en la

ciudad. Es el lugar de lo moderno, de la novedad, de la sorpresa, pero tam-bin un espacio ordenado y ocupado por el hombre, y por eso mismo puedecobrar una dimensin fantstica. A veces se trata de Montevideo, que apareceabiertamente nombrada, o que adivinamos a travs de unos nombres de ca-lles, remitiendo, as, a un referente reconocible o imaginable. Por ejemplo, alnal del cuento Las Hortensias, el protagonista deambula por la ciudad yva adonde le llevan sus pensamientos hasta encontrarse como por casualidaden un parque: despert de sus pensamientos en el Parque de las Acacias yfue a sentarse en un banco. Mientras pensaba en su vida dej la mirada debajo

de unos rboles y despus sigui la sombra, que se arrastraba hasta llegar alas aguas de un lago (Hernndez, 2008: vol. 2, 226). Efectivamente y graciasal acceso a los mapas precisos en Internet nos enteramos de que existe unparque con este nombre en la capital uruguaya.

1.2. El marco de lo posible: el espacio construido

Sin embargo, por ms realista que parezca este marco, se trata de unespacio necesariamente construido por el texto. De hecho, las descripcionesde marcos posibles se parecen al efecto de lo real explicado por Roland Bar-thes (1982: 89):

cest l ce quon pourrait appeler lillusion rfrentielle. La vr

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