'Believing without believing': «le rêve de croyance» in Nodier’s oeuvre

Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of the ‘belief’ in Charles Nodier’s tales, starting from the request of a ‘suspension of disbelief’ which is a peculiar of the XIX°’s century fantastic novels. Firstly, I will take in consideration Paul Benichou’s reflection from the L’école du désenchantement, where the author describes a specific form of ‘belief’ in Nodier’s tales with the name of ‘rêve de croyance’. Secondly, I will analyze some pages of Nodier’s tales: such a close reading of the texts is functional to underline the problem of belief as a central part of a more complex construction, which is also present in Nodier’s non-literary production.

Keywords

• nodier, fantastique, meraviglioso, impossibile, credenza