The X-Files : aux frontières du fantastique

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of a major science-fiction series of the 1990s, The X-Files (Fox, 1993-2002 / 2016-2018), and of the way it incorporates the notion of the fantastic. By relying on some elements of canonical definitions of this genre, notably in literature (R. Caillois, T. Todorov, D. Mellier), the original aesthetic and narrative systems that the series puts in place, especially in its pilot, are highlighted. A key point of exploration involves how the story, which is anchored in the realist register and shows the alternate points of view of the two protagonists – Mulder, the profiler who believes in the "supernatural", and Scully, "the scientist" who favors rational thought and explanations – allows the fantastic genre to manifest itself and thereby leaves viewers to deal with the undecidability of an uncertain world where permanent questioning reigns. Similarly, ambiguity reigns aesthetically, notably through audiovisual parameters (image, framing, editing, depth of field), but also through the ambiguity of certain signs within the images. This creates a tension between a necessary realistic framework and a supernatural disturbance. This tension in turn allows the public to confront a fundamentally ambiguous reading of the fictional world, which is the basis of the fantastic genre. Finally, there is the question of how this fantastic world, through its undecidability and its generic hybridity, becomes the necessary articulation of the series, alternating isolated episodes and episodes linked to an alien mythology, and how the series allows, through hesitation and often incomplete narratives, for the permanent relaunching of the public’s desire for fiction.

Keywords

• X-Files (The)
• pilot
• fantastic
• realistic anchoring
• undecidability
• serial narrative