EL DISCURSO SUBVERSIVO DE PATRICIA ESTEBAN ERLÉS EN EL CONTEXTO DE LO FANTÁSTICO FEMINISTA

La poética fantástica de Patricia Esteban Erlés (Zaragoza, 1972) constituye una contestación al ideario conservador asumido por nuestro imaginario cultural. Así lo demuestran características relativas a la selección y el tratamiento de los personajes, la temática, la construcción y la significación del espacio narrativo, el modo de abordar la monstruosidad derivada de la realidad sexista, las propuestas formales y la apuesta por el hibridismo genérico. Su análisis estará imbricado con reflexiones sobre la consolidación de esta línea de lo fantástico feminista en las últimas décadas en el ámbito de la narrativa en español y sobre la posible existencia de un canon de autoras, tanto en español como en otras lenguas, que haya podido influir en esa fragua de lo fantástico escrito por mujeres con una clara perspectiva política, en la que lo no mimético se convierte en una herramienta ideológica de denuncia social y genérica. Abstract: Born Zaragoza, 1972, Patricia Esteban Erlés’s poetics of fantastic represents a contestation to the conservative ideology assumed by our cultural imaginary. This is demonstrated by some characteristics related to the selection and treatment of characters, the subject, the construction and the signification of the narrative space, the approach to monstrosity as derived from sexist reality, the formal proposals and the inclination towards generic hybridism. Its analysis will be interweaved with reflections on the consolidation of this trend of the feminist fantastic in the last decades in the Spanish narrative panorama and the possible existence of a female writers canon, both in Spanish and other languages, that could have influenced the forging of the fantastic written by women with a clear political perspective in which non-mimetic genres have become an ideological tool for gender and social denunciation.

NIGROMANCIA Y GÉNERO. LA BRUJA EN LA NARRATIVA DE PILAR PEDRAZA

En su literatura —normalmente vinculada a lo fantástico y lo gótico—, Pilar Pedraza pone énfasis en individuos al margen, a menudo monstruosos. Entre todas estas figuras, destaca la de la bruja. El artículo estudia cómo la concibe la autora. A partir de las ideas expuestas en Brujas, sapos y aquelarres (2014) y el repaso de las obras más representativas, busca dirimir en qué medida el tratamiento de Pedraza afecta a su poética como creadora de una narrativa insólita y hasta qué punto se puede hablar de un enfoque específicamente femenino —o feminista— de este tipo de ficción, sobre todo en su vertiente gótica. Abstract: In her literature —commonly linked to the fantastic and the gothic—, Pilar Pedraza focuses on individuals on the margins, often monstrous. Among all these figures, the witch stands out. The article studies the way the author conceives it. Based on the ideas exposed in Brujas, sapos y aquelarres (2014) and the analysis of the most representative works, it aims to determine to what extent Pedraza’s treatment affects her poetics as a producer of unusual fiction and to what extent we can consider it a specifically feminine —or feminist— approach to this type of fiction, especially on the gothic side.

Mapowanie teorii. Geobiografia teorii literatury fantastycznej w Polsce — propozycja badawcza i dwa studia przypadku

In the article the project of mapping the theories of fantastic literature in Poland is going to be presented. Methodology proposals have been completed by microanalyses of selected examples. It is of our conviction that the advancement of theoretical studies on the fantastic allows for introducing some arrangements, specifically in terms of reconstructing the mechanisms and conditions for building up the knowledge. We make use of the emergence theory focusing on repeatedness of accidental occurrences in, for instance, transferring and grounding notions or quite opposite in disqualifying particular scientific concepts and aiming at the strength of personal (biographical, geographical) conditions and idiosyncrasy in forming critical discourses on the fantastic phenomenon. The theory frame of the project is set up mainly by the concepts resulted from the spatial turn in the humanities. The arrangements of occurrences and cases made in the Polish theory of the fantastic are in reference to the concept of cultural geography, cultural mobility, migration studies and biographical materialism. It is proposed to benefit from derived therefrom the methods for data development, one of them the map. It is postulated also to identify the, so called, “lineages”, that is the theoretical and literary approaches to the fantastic,viewed in terms of long-term structures [longue durée] (it is mentioned in the article aimed at the study of the case dealing with the reception of literary works and theoretical studies of S. Grabiński via A. Hutnikiewicz). In turn, the study on cultural mobility (adaptation, reinterpretation, transferring, translation of particular approaches and concepts in the fantastic theory) will demonstrate the directions, speed and potentials in spreading the theory, for instance foreign ones in Poland and Polish abroad, respectively (it is emphasized in the study on the case of the reception of the T. Todorov via S. Lem fantastic theory). Finally it is of great interest to look into nomadic biographies (geographically and intellectually) of Polish fantastic literature theorists. It is proposed to reinforce in the studies not only the issue of human factor but also the material (artefacts, places) and the institutional (e.g. journals, universities) ones in determining communicative memory of particular theories of fantastic literature.

Nikczemne skrzaty i inne (nie)baśniowe potworności dzieciństwa w „Złodziejach snów” Małgorzaty Strękowskiej-Zaremby

The first part of the article provides a short outline of the works by Małgorzata Strękowska-Zaremba, a well-known and critically acclaimed Polish children’s author, and gives special attention to her interest in certain popular literature genres. Among her works, a prominent place is occupied by three books in which the writer uses various genres and conventions of the fantastic to discuss important real-life problems: parents’ divorce and homelessness in Złodzieje snów [The Dream Stealers] (2008/2019), domestic violence in Dom nie z tej ziemi [The Otherworldly House] (2017), and depression in Lilana (2019). The main part of the paper covers an analysis of Złodzieje snów, which is focused on monsterological plots and motifs shown in the context of the use of fairytale conventions in the book. Strękowska-Zaremba utilises the figure of demonic gnomes (derived from French folklore) who in the story are believed to have stolen the dreams of the protagonist, little Basia, after her parents separated. However, as the author of the article claims in its last part, in Złodzieje snów, these creatures from the folk imagery are much less monstrous than real-life problems, including separation and divorce, loneliness, and homelessness. This also applies to Dom nie z tej ziemi and Lilana, which is briefly stated in the conclusion.

Przez fantastykę do ekokrytyki. Zwrot ku science fiction

The author puts forward the thesis that the challenges of the current times resulting from environmental change, the destruction of habitats and ecological disasters direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic or ecofiction: (eco)horror, (eco)science fiction, or (eco)fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene, culminating in inevitable disaster, science fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. The author follows K.S. Robinson’s line of thinking that “science fiction is a new realism”, A. Ghosh’s analysis of the relationship between literature and ecology, and D. Haraway’s research on new ways of understanding the relationships between people and non-humans using the speculative potential of sci-fi. It is therefore suggested that there is a great need for a science fiction vision, aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene/Capitalocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).

Poesia degli oggetti e oggetti di poesia nelle favole di Fedro

Fluctuating between the fantastic character of the Aesopian fable and the concrete nature of the Roman society, Phaedrus gives objects two different roles: in tales about animals, objects are 'foreign bodies', and serve a metaphorical function in line with the moralizing purpose of the story. In tales about humans, on the other hand, objects 'define' characters, and root the story more deeply in a specifically Roman context, closer to the world of satire than to that of narrative literature.

Інтермедіальні коди у творах болгарських фантастів ХХ–ХХІ ст

The article is dedicated to the study of the intermedial codes in the fantastic works written by the Bulgarian writers of the 20th-21st centuries. Intermediality as a form of interconnectedness of different types of art is challenging for literature research. The aim of the article is to study the interaction of verbal and audio (music), verbal and visual (pictorial art, architectural models), verbal and performing/synthetic (cinema, theatre) arts. The object of the research is the Bulgarian fantastic literature of the 20th-21st centuries, where the subject is codes of intermediality. The method of intermedial studies proves to be fruitful for this type of research work. As a result, it is stated that the variants of ekphrasis (picture-ekphrasis, urboekphrasis, oikoekphrasis, musical ekphrasis), “ekphrastic transition” and the interaction of verbal and audio, verbal and visual, verbal and synthetic arts are implemented in the Bulgarian fantastic literature of the 20th-21st centuries.

Krytycznie o gatunku – Lema i Dukaja poglądy na fantastykę naukową

In the essay Science fiction: a hopeless case - with exceptions, Stanisław Lem spoke negatively about science fiction (but also about its authors and fans), proving its secondary nature and entanglement in market laws, pointing out the lack of reliable criticism from outside the fandom and flattering the tastes of recipients who only seek entertainment in literature. The author of Solaris included science fiction in the “lower kingdom” of literature, contrasting it with mainstream (“upper kingdom”). Thus, he symbolically strengthened the division into the fantastic “ghetto” and mainstream literature.Jacek Dukaj also spoke about science fiction in a slightly less categorical tone. In the essay Krajobraz po zwycięstwie, czyli polska fantastyka AD 2006 [Landscape after victory, or Polish fantasy AD 2006], the author of Ice noticed similar problems that Lem had seen in the past (lack of external criticism, lack of ambition, stagnation and reluctance of SF writers to go beyond plot and language patterns, flattering fashions and treating science fiction prose only as entertainment literature); however, unlike Lem, he seemed to be interested in the fate of his environment and proposed specific solutions that could raise the rank of science fiction.

Warriors of Steel: Representations of Machinery and Technology in British Heavy Metal of the 1980s

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal is a remarkable phenomenon in British cultural history of the 1980s. Trying to identify themselves and to indicate their reaction to the social and political context in the UK, young musicians turned to the representation of fantastic worlds. The language of the “fantastic” in early British heavy metal was primarily associated with themes of mechanization, heroics, epics, mythology, fantasy and science fiction. The musical form was often emphatically epic and majestic, designed to create an audio picture to the lyrics. Visual representations — large-scale, spectacular, often theatrical live performances — played an important role in the representation of the “fantastic”. The semiotic element consisted of the signs and symbols of heavy metal (mascots, occult themes, mythological creatures, technocratic motives), which were reflected not only in the design of album covers and the metal bands names, but also in the clothes and behavior of musicians and their fans. The paper examines the specifics of the fantastic language of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands and, first of all, the representation of technogenic motives: how machines and robots were depicted, what techniques were used to create machine soundscapes, how this topic was played up within live performances, and finally, what cultural significance did references to machines and technology have.