Special Issue of George Sand Studies, vols. 39-40 (2020-2021) : “Romans fantastiques, contes, légendes, fantaisies” 

Edited by I. Naginski (Tufts Univ.) and A. Marcoline (Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake)

Call for Articles

At the 2004 Colloque de Cerisy, M.E. Thérenty brought to our attention George Sand’s discussions with Spoelberch de Lovenjoul about organizing her writings into a collected edition. Sand insisted on a bipartite structure, separating the novels and short stories grounded in reality from those “qui appartiennent au fantastique et à l’allégorique.”1 For this reason, Sand proposed naming the first category “Études de sentiment” (rejecting Lovenjoul’s suggestion of the Balzacian “Études sociales”) and the second category “Romans fantastiques, contes, légendes, fantaisies.”

Given the focus in the 2018-2019 special issue of George Sand Studies on emotion in Sand’s work, we now propose a special issue dedicated to the second of these two categories, “Romans fantastiques, contes, légendes, fantaisies,” interpreted in the broadest sense.

Sand, for her part, included in this second category such texts as La Reine Mab, Cadio, Kourouglou, Les Légendes rustiques, Evenor et Leucippe, Contes d’une grand’mère, Le Diable aux champs, Poème de Myrza, and Laura ou Voyage dans le cristal, among others, later adding Lélia and Spiridion. Although she considered including Les Dames vertes and Teverino in this category, she decided in the end to include them in “Études de sentiment.” However, insofar as the first of these two novels displays an element of the supernatural (albeit explained), and the second, with such other novels as Le Secrétaire intime, was called a “fantaisie” by the author, we can imagine the possibility of their inclusion in the corpus in question. We might even go so far as to add Consuelo and La Comtesse de Rudolstadt to this list, with their gothic elements, as well as Mauprat, with its link to the roman noir.

How might we understand these two sides of Sand’s romanesque writings? Can we understand this second category as coherent? The addition of Lélia and Spiridion is particularly confusing, if not outright problematic. Certainly, allegory plays a central role in these novels, but they are also two of the most abstract in Sand’s corpus. Did Sand, at the end of her life, attempt to organize her fictional world along the lines of Balzac, with her “Études de sentiment” as the equivalent of his “Études de mœurs” and her “Romans fantastiques . . .” corresponding to his “Études philosophiques”? One also notices that Sand includes texts that demarcate her entire literary career, from La Reine Mab to the Contes d’une Grand’mère.

Building upon the work of P. Auraix-Jonchière, J. Beizer, M. Cl. Vallois on Sand’s tales; of M. Mallia on the gothic in Sand’s work; and on the profusion of work on the fantastic since Todorov (P. Brunel & J. Vion-Dury, C. Grivel, R. Bozzetto, J. Le Guennec, A. Richter, D. Mellier, M. Gibson, among others), we invite proposals for articles that advance Sand scholarship in areas that have too often been overlooked. Indeed, we particularly welcome articles that examine texts that are often forgotten or rarely studied.

Deadline for submission of proposal (500 words): December 15, 2019
Deadline for submission of completed article (8000 words maximum): July 1, 2020 Deadline for submission of revised article: January 15, 2021

All submissions must follow the most recent MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing guidelines (see also the bibliography below), as well as the George Sand Studies guidelines. The GSS style sheet and previous issues can be found on the GSA website at https://gsa.hofstradrc.org/en/journal. Essays may be written in French or English and should not exceed 8000 words in length. Please send a 500-word proposal to Isabelle Naginski (isabelle.naginski@tufts.edu) and Anne Marcoline (marcoline@uhcl.edu) by December 15, 2019.