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Monday, November 1, 2010

CALLOU, CAILLOIS: RESOURCE

While waiting to get ahold of Todorov's THE FANTASTIQUE I did some online research on Roger Caillois, the French surrealist and "social theorist" (sez Wiki) from whom Todorov quotes as follows:

Caillois, too, proposes as a “touchstone of the fantastic ... the impression of irreducible strangeness.”


As I'm quoting from an online excerpt I can't tell whether or not Todorov's book quotes the source of this definition (which will be important in evaluating Todorov's own theory). I did find that source elsewhere online, though:


http://books.google.com/books?id=oDvs9PqvMbcC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=todorov+caillois+strangeness+ozick&source=bl&ots=SKTKXmKiRt&sig=nYu-auTwjlH69WZrbrWE7YMo9wI&hl=en&ei=cRrPTO_fHcGblgex5KiXBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=todorov%20caillois%20strangeness%20ozick&f=false

Apparently the quote comes from a Caillois book named AU COEUR DU FANTASTIQUE, which as far as I can tell has not been readily translated to English. Todorov is apparently rejecting Caillois' definition(s) as too limited, however.

More on these matters later.

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