French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Dunn-Lardeau, Le Voyage imaginaire dans le temps. Du récit médiéval au roman postmoderne
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Review published in the critical dossier of Acta Fabula, "Littératures de voyage" (June 2010, Vol. 11, no. 6): "Au-delà des limites du temps" by Alex Demeulenaere.
Brenda Dunn-Lardeau
Le Voyage imaginaire dans le temps. Du récit médiéval au roman postmoderne
With the collaboration of Marie-Pierre Genest, Geneviève Denis, Anne-Marie Giroux, and Alain Biage
Grenoble: ELLUG, Hors collection, 2009.
ISBN: 978-2-84310-137-3
Price: 31 € (+ shipping costs)
Abstract:
This work is an invitation to explore the literature of imaginary time travel, which allows the reader to push past the limits inherent in the human condition. These narratives, which we term "heterochronic narratives," are characterized by the co-presence of distinct historical epochs within the fictional universe, as well as the establishment of a meaningful relationship between these various eras.
The introduction defines the notion of heterochrony, subsequently tracing its evolution from antiquity (through themes of prolonged sleep, metempsychosis, immortality, or dreams), passing through foundational texts and their development up to the XXe c. The seven chapters focus on the legend of the Seven Sleepers and its avatars in modern literature and folklore; Montesquieu's Histoire véritable; XIXe-century fantastic literature (notably in W. Irving); V. Woolf's Orlando; S. de Beauvoir's Tous les hommes sont mortels; C. Fuentes's Terra Nostra; and R. Davies's The Rebel Angels. An annotated bibliography of nearly a hundred heterochronic narratives available in French concludes the work.
Are there privileged historical epochs in these temporal voyages? And what might be the underlying common project of heterochronic narratives? Could it be defined not as a quest for historical accuracy, but rather for a broader definition of reality than the dates and facts found in history textbooks?
Table of contents:
Table of contents
Introduction. Fictional Heterochrony
Heterochrony
Genesis of the Term: From Foucault's Heterotopia
to Fictional Heterochrony
Fictional Heterochrony: Definition of the Concept
Brief Genesis of the Use of Heterochrony in Narrative
The Descent into the Underworld
Immortality
The Dream
Foundational Narratives
From the 19th Century Onward
A Particular Case: The Heterochronic Character
in a Non-Heterochronic Narrative
Variety of Heterochronic Modalities
Critical Perspectives Useful for Interpreting Heterochronic Narratives
Georges May and the Meaning of Imaginary Voyages
Zoé Oldenbourg and the Formal Innovations of the Historical Novel
Milan Kundera and the Co-presence of Eras as a New Challenge for the Novel
Elisabeth Wesseling and the Metamorphoses of the Historical Novel
Corpus Examined and Presentation of the Studied Works
I. The Legend of the Seven Sleepers or Crossing Time
Hagiographical Assessment
The Legend of the Seven Sleepers in Contemporary Literary Culture and the Imagination
Contemporary Heirs Preserving the Hagiographical and Spiritual Dimension
Imaginary Time Travel
The Secularized Versions of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers: Fairy Tales and Their Presence in Folklore and Fantastic Literature
Conclusion
II. Montesquieu's Histoire véritable
From Lucian of Samosata's True History (2nd Century)
to Montesquieu's Histoire véritable
Reincarnation and Metamorphosis in Histoire véritable
Religious and Philosophical Sources
Literary Sources
The Play of Truth and Fiction in Histoire véritable
The Imaginary Voyage as a Medium for Comparatism
The Tradition of Imaginary Voyages According to Georges May and Comparatism in Histoire véritable
Otherness and Self-Definition
The Experience of the Two Sexes in Histoire véritable
Conclusion
III. Heterochrony in 19th-Century Fantastic Literature
The Fantastic: A Literature of Transgression
Heterochronic Strategies in the Fantastic Sphere
Undead of All Kinds
Around the Idea of Immortality
Reincarnation
The Animated Work of Art
The Reanimated City
The Dream
Loss of Consciousness
Pseudo-Scientific Devices
Synthesis
Fantastic and Heterochronic Experiences in Washington Irving
Rip Van Winkle (1820) or When Time Plays in One's Favor
The Governor of the Seven Cities (1855) or When Time Plays Against One's Favor
Heroes Who Do Not Make History
Conclusion
IV. Orlando, or an Elizabethan Striding Across the Centuries
Orlando as a Historical Novel
The Average Hero
Local Color and the Metaphor of the Traditional Historical Novel
From the Guided Tour of History to the Subjectivization of History
From Linear Chronology to the Strategy of Gapped Chronology
Orlando as a Fictional Biography
The Biographer's Imagination and Subjective Time
The Stalling Point in Biography as a Driver of Psychological Action
Orlando as a Novel of Autobiographical Inspiration
Orlando as a Heterochronic Novel
Orlando's Long Life as a Heterochronic Modality
The Lesson of Intertextuality: Orlando and Elizabethan Literature
The Lesson of Diegesis
Orlando, The Voyage Out, and To the Lighthouse, or The Taste for
Encounters Between Past and Present
Conclusion
V. Crossings of Time and History…
Time on an Individual and Collective Scale
An Immortal Across Time and History
Representations of History in Its Longue Durée
Violence in History
Engagement in Political or Social Struggles
The Evolution of the Condition of Women
The Past Brought into Relation with the Present
Conclusion
Imaginary Time Travel
VI. Reconstructions of Time and History…
Heterochronic Characters
Don Philippe
Célestine
Functions of Heterochronic Characters
Objects Producing Heterochrony
The Orvieto Altarpiece
The Memory Theatre
Magic Mirrors
Play with Time
Intentional Anachronisms
Circular Time
Vico's Reinterpretation by Fuentes and Its Effects on the Representation of History in Terra Nostra
An Enterprise Inspired by Vico
A Particular Type of Historical Novel
Conclusion: A Heterochronic Historical Novel at the Service
of a Polyphony of History
VII. Heterochronic Worldviews…
The Inscription of the Past in the Present
The Description of the Contemporary Universe by Narrators
Networks of Reference
The Integration of Historical Models into the Construction
of Contemporary Characters
The Purposes of Heterochrony in The Rebel Angels
Identity Purposes
The Humanist Purposes of The Rebel Angels
Conclusion
Essay-Style Conclusion
Compiled Bibliographies
Annotated Bibliography of Heterochronic Novels
Index
Publisher's Information:
You can order this work from your bookseller via CID, 131 boulevard Saint-Michel, 75005 Paris
Directly online on the website: http://www.lcdpu.fr/
or from ELLUG
The study of narrative time and anachronism occupies a substantial place in modern literary criticism, engaging with how fiction constructs alternative relationships to history and memory. Within the broader tradition of narrative theory and comparative literature, scholars frequently examine the ways texts challenge linear chronology to stage encounters between different epochs. This volume addresses works that deploy such temporal crossings, focusing on the co-presence of distinct historical periods within a single fictional universe and considering the theoretical implications of these structures for narrative art.
Brenda Dunn-Lardeau and her collaborators examine narratives characterized by mouseY coexistence of historical epochs, tracing this mode from antiquity through foundational texts to twentieth-century novels. The chapters treat specific works by authors such as Montesquieu, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Carlos Fuentes, and Robertson Davies, analyzing themes of immortality, reincarnation, and the legend of the Seven Sleepers. Readers interested in the evolution of narrative forms and the imaginative representation of time may find this volume a useful contribution to literary history.