Skepticism, supernatural and mystifications : The "fantastique" in early-modern narrative prose (17th--18th centuries).

Supernatural and "fantastique" elements in the narrative literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance have received critical attention from Francis Dubost (1991) and Marianne Closson (2000), among others.

The Classical Age, however, has not yet been studied systematically, although several of its texts have been labeled as "forerunners" of the modern "Fantastique" genre.

Taking into account the philosophical discourses that inform the most significant of those works, this project proposes that 17th and 18 th-century mystifications function as a link between the medieval supernatural/fantasy and the "fantastique" genre that blossomed in the 19 th century.

The first chapter studies Montfaucon de Villars's Comte de Gabalis (1670) as an occult novel that demystifies the Bible and established religion through laughter; it considers how its "Nouveau Merveilleux" (Laufer) is stripped of the gloomy and ominous aspects of the earlier supernatural, and how several parodies, written over the centuries, fuel the debate that is still going on about its meaning.

The second chapter analyzes Laurent Bordelon's Histoire des Imaginations Extravagantes de Monsieur Oufle (1710) as a systematic, philosophical critique of superstitions and as a way to entertain the reader with extravagant adventures that contain many ingredients of 18th century mystifications.

The third chapter is a detailed study of Jean Monnet's Mystifications du sieur P..., appendice au Supplement an Roman Comique de Scarron (1772); it shows how the cruel tricks played upon the playwright Poinsinet (1735-1769) function as a burlesque denunciation of Christian and popular beliefs in the supernatural.

Deeply rooted in the world of the "theatres de la foire", these adventures also propose a reflection on the nature of reality and illusion toward the end of the 18th century.

In conclusion, Jacques Cazotte's Le Diable Amoureux (1772) - often cited as the first fantastique novel of the modern period -, is analyzed as paving the way for the 19th-century fantastique, a genre in which doubts and uncertainty no longer stem from external sources but from internalized anxieties.