L'ile symbolique vernienne ou a la recherche du Grand Temps Mythique

Abstract

As it has been pointed out by all researchers of human imaginary, the territory of an island may be understood as a place of regeneration (recreation) of the Great Mythical Time, the beginnings of humanity, sanctified by the presence of gods and ancient heroes. The same is true for the symbolic Verne's island, whose literary visions often refer to the subject/motif of illud tempus, the golden age of humanity. In Julius Verne's prose, this subject becomes updated, inter alia, in the form of numerous allusions to Atlantis, the mythical island that became the symbol of perfection of the first human epoch (Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, The Mysterious Island). The problem of recreation (regeneration) of the imaginary Great Mythical Time in the works of Julius Verne requires the quotation from another work by the author, where the problem finds a good literary reflection. In "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras", a novel concerning polar exploration, heroes have a chance to visit Arctic Arcadia, an uninhabited country, which owing to its beauty becomes an ephemeral reflection of the nature's perfection and of excellent symbiosis between nature and man, a relation that existed in illo tempore. Both literary visions (Atlantis, Arctic Arcadia) prove that the myth of the "Golden Age" (aetas aurea) appears also in the Verne's works. If analysed from this angle of vision, they show traces of basic psychological dynamisms that characterise homo symbolicus.

Keywords

• aetas aurea
• illud tempus