The anthropological structures of the imaginary

226 Pages·2018·20.44 MB·English

by  Durand

DURAND
GILBERT
-~­
/i'
Other major works by Gilbert Durand
Le Decor mythique de La Chartreuse de Parme. Les structures figuratives THE
du roman stendhalien (1961), 3rd ed., Paris, Jose Corti, 1983.
L 'Imagination symbolique (1964), 4th ed., Paris, P.U.F., 1984.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
Science de l'homme et tradition. Le nouvel esprit anthropowgique (1975),
3rd ed., Paris Dunod, 1992.
On the Transfiguration oft he Image ofM an in the West, Cambridge, STRUCTURES
Golgonooza Press, 1977.
a
Figures mythiques et visages de l'a:uvre. De la mythocritique la
mythana!Jse (1979), Paris, Dunod, 1992. OF THE
L 'Ame tigree, les pluriels de Psyche, Paris, Denoel, 1981.
Mito, simbow e mitodowgia, Lisboa, Ed. Presern;a, 1982.
IMAGINARY
Mito e sociedade. A mitanalise et a sociowgia das profondeza, Lisboa,
Ed. Regra di Jogo, 1983.
La Foi du cordonnier, Paris, Denoel, 1984.
Beaux arts et archetypes, Paris, P.U.F., 1989.
Translated by
L 'Imaginaire, essai sur les sciences et la phiwsophie de !'image. Paris,
Margaret Sankey & Judith Hatten
Hatier, 1994.
Introduction a la mythodowgie. Mythe et socitfttf, Paris, Albin Michel,
1995.
/
800MBANA PUBLICATIONS
BRISBANE
Published by Boombana Publications
PO Box 118, Mount Nebo, 4520, Australia
Fax [phone]
http://www.uq.net.au/ ~zzjlache/boombana AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
This work is a translation of Gilbert Durand, Les Structures anthropologiques de
a This book, which is about to go into its twelfth edition in France, was first pub
l'imaginaire: Introduction l'archltypologie gtntrale, 11th ed., Paris, Dunod, 1992.
lished thirty-nine years ago. 1 Translated into many languages (Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Roumanian, Polish, Korean, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese) it has been,
© Dunod, Paris 1992.
through a combination ofu nlucky events, inaccessibl.e until now to the English-speaking
This translation© Boombana Publications, Brisbane 1999.
world.
Cover: La Peri, aquarelle by Gustave Moreau, Musee du Louvre, Paris. W'e trust that today's readers, however, will find the propositions and theses here
expounded for from obsol.ete. They have in fact been confirmed by numerous contem
Photo© RMN -J.G. Berizzi.
porary developments in the sciences. W'e pointed out these convergences in the various
Prefaces added over the years to the original work, which this Foreword simply wants
to summarise.
In 1969, on the occasion oft he third edition, we emphasised the agreement ofo ur
"figurative structuralism" with the position ofS tephane Lupasco who suggested the
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
need for a change in logic ift he most recent scientific data were to be understood. W'e
Durand, Gilbert, 1921-. saw the imaginary, more than ever, as constituting the dynamic spiritual and intel
[Les structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire. English] lectual capital ofhomo sapiens. W'e saw imagination as the common denominator of
The anthropological structures of the imaginary. all human thought, and an earnest study ofi ts field as an indispensable cure to the
paralysing effects oft he compartmentalisation oft he university "disciplines'; the "meth
Bibliography.
ods" of which had become scientifically incoherent, thus creating the necessity for
Includes index.
systematic pluridisciplinarity. This position was resoundingly confirmed by the
ISBN 1 876542 03 9.
UNESCO International Symposium on Interdisciplinarity in Paris in April 1991
1. Imagination (Philosophy). 2. Theory (Philosophy). 3. (proceedings published under the titl.e Entre savoirs: l'interdisciplinarite en acte:
Symbolism. 4. Anthropology -Philosophy. I. Hatten, enjeux, obstacles, perspectives/ Toulouse, Eres, 1992).
Judith Clare. II. Sankey, Margaret, 1943-. In the sixth French edition in 1980, we noted that the systemic pluralism at the
origin ofo ur empirical gathering ofd ata had been theoretically and practically con
128.3
firmed by the progress ofs cience over the last twenty years. W'e hailed the victory oft he
"New Anthropological Spirit'; originating in the New Scientific Spirit (cel.ebrated in
its time by our mentor, Gaston Bachelard), and the convergence oft he Lupascian
topic that we had adopted with ground-breaking research from very diverse scientific
horizons, namely the work ofh istorians ofr eligion (Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumtzil
This translation was supported by a grant
from the French Ministere de la Culture.
I Gilbert Durand, Les Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire: Introduction a
l'archltypologie glnerale, Paris, Presses universitaires de France and Grenoble, Publications
de la Faculte des lettres et sciences humaines, 21, 1960. This translation is of the eleventh
edition, published by Dunod (Paris) in 1992. The text has not been altered in any way
since the third edition (1969).
Printed by Watson Ferguson & Co.
2 Between Knowledges: Interdisciplinarity in Action: problems, obstacles, perspectives.
35 Hamilton Road, Moorooka 4105, Australia.
6 FOREWORDS FOREWORDS 7
and Henry Corbin), that ofd epth psychologists (such as fames Hillman), and work phy, just as had been foreseen by physicists such as E Capra or E. Schrodinger, and as
in the "hard" sciences such as Bertalanjfj's systemics, E Jacob's biology, Rene Thom's was affirmed by Niels Bohr or R. Ruyer, or confirmed in philosophy by Edgar Morin,
mathematics. At the same time, our research and our theses were being confirmed M Beigbeider andJ J Wunenberger.
and developed in the numerous Centres ofR esearch on the Imaginary originating
The 1991 Colloquium at Cerisy-la-Salle, which brought together specialised re
from the ''mother house': the CR! ofG renoble founded in 1966 (CNRS GRECO in
searchers from fourteen countries, and which was devoted to our work, confirmed the
1981). Finally, work in ethology by people such as Spitz, Kayla and Portmann,
continued relevance and fecundity of our analyses. There are at present approxi
leading up to the awarding oft he Nobel Prize for Medicine (1973) to K LorenZ, N.
mately fifty Centres ofR esearch on the Imaginary throughout the world. English
Tinbergen and E. von Frisch, had splendidly validated and developed the pioneering
speaking researchers will find that the theses proposed here are receiving ever-increas
work ofR ussian reflexology on which our theses were based.
ing confirmation from the totality oft he epistemological, logical and philosophical
The Preface oft he tenth edition three years later (1983) emphasised the coher currents which constitute our age and its "real presences': as George Steiner calls
ence of our theories with the "Great Change': then clearly being signalled in all them. We are sure that this book will be ofb enefit to researchers in many fields and
sciences. Since 1979 - the date emblematically marked by the famous Cordoba we hope that it will entice some oft hem to pursue research in the areas ofm ythocriticism
Colloquium 1 - the hitherto incompatible ''two readings oft he universe': that oft he and mythanalysis.
sciences and that ofo ther spiritual endeavours, tended to coalesce-fasing Bache lard's
To conclude this Foreword we wish to thank the Australian publisher jean-Claude
two great loves: science and poetry. Scientists, like the American physicist G. Holton,
Lacherez (Boombana Publications) and, ofc ourse, our colleagues Margaret Sankey
discovered that the sciences, and even the most up-to-date physical sciences - that of
andJ udith Hatten from the Department ofF rench Studies at the University ofS yd
Einstein or Niels Bohr - were modeled and defined in their essential directions by
ney for their expert and meticulous work.
important ''themata" closely related to our ideas oft he imaginary's ''verbal schemata''.
The different notions ofs pace/time that we had intuited when contrasting the two Gilbert Durand
"Orders oft he image': and that we had been exploring (under the heading of 'se
mantic basin") using as a framework moments ofg reat socio-cultural change, were
1' discovered anew by many scholars who attributed various names to them. The Anglo
Saxon biologists Waddington and She/drake called them ''causative agents" or
TRANSLATORS' FOREWORD
''chreodes': while the mathematician Rene Thom used the terms "logos" and
''morphogenetic fields': and the French historian Braudel theorised the idea ofw ell
defined "tongues durees" underpinning the events ofh istory and ''economies/worlds" Our decision to translate this work coincides with an increasing interest in the
in socio-cultural spaces. In turn, the English physicist David Bohm substituted for the English-speaking world in the conceptualisation oft he human imagination - al
old idea of''explanation': that of "implication" closely related to the old alchemical ready a rich tradition in French philosophical thought. Our use oft he word "imagi
ideas (adopted by Schelling andJ ung) oft he Un us Mund us. Clearly, such groupings nary" in the English title, The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, ac
ofd iscoveries and conceptualisations extinguished the "pure reason" ofA ristotle, in knowledges the introduction oft he word and concept into English. In the latest edi
herited by Kant. In contemporary physics space was no longer a homogeneous field tion oft he Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy, we read the following:
ofs eparabilities (Feynman, D'Espagnat) and time was no longer considered to be
irreversible (,A. Aspect, 0. Costa de Beauregard, A. Sakharov). What we had defined Imaginary 1. adj. pertaining to the imagination_; fictitious. 2. n. As a
in our book as the ambivalence of the "anthropological dialectic" - that is, the noun, the word is a recent import from the French and bears the traces
symmetry of causative chains originating equally in the psychological and in the of a long history of theorisation about the imaginary within French
socio-cultural-was confirmed by recent scientific developments. Such a radical and philosophy, <esthetics, literary theory, cultural anthropology and psy
profound epistemological revolution, upsetting as it does tlie binary logic oft he ''ex choanalysis.
cluded middle': necessarily subverts the bases oft he old ethnocentric Western philoso- The term has been in common use at least since the Surrealists, with
refe!'ence to all kinds of imagined or invented meanings. It is a key
concept in work as diverse as that of the cultural anthropologist Gilbert
1 Proceedings published in French as Science et Comcience, Paris, Stock, 1984; English
Durand and that of the philosopher Michele Le Dreuff. Its recent his
trans.: Science and Comciousness: Two Views oft he Universe, Proceedings of the France
Culture and Radio-France Colloquium, Cordoba, Spain; ed. by M. Cazeneuve, trans. by tory also owes much to the work of the French psychoanalyst Jacques
A. Hall and E. Callender, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1984. Lacan and critics such as Luce Irigaray and Cornelius Castoriadis.
9
FOREWORDS FOREWORDS
8
For this translation to reach fruition, the contribution and support ofm any peo
[ ... ] Gilbert Durand, a disciple ofBachelard, adopts an anthropologi ple has been essential. Some years ago, when Les Structures was first published,
Professor Ross Chambers introduced Gilbert Durand's work to us and to other Aus
cal point of view in order to undertake a systematic classification of the
tralian French-speaking scholars. It is him therefore that we thank first ofa ll for his
human imaginary.1
guidance and leadership. Since that time in the late 1960s we have constantly found
Durand's book deals with the structure oft he human imaginary, within which it Durand's work to be a source ofi nspiration and illumination in many areas ofo ur
establishes a typology off igures, organised structurally according to several central academic research.
archetypes and focussing on man's subjective experience ofs pace and ultimately time.
we also thank Gilbert Durandf or responding patiently andp recisely to our many
Durand is a disciple ofG aston Bachelard and his work can be seen to some extent as
questions throughout the translating oft his book. we likewise thank all those friends .
a continuation and formalisation oft he intuitions oft hat great French philosopher.
and colleagues, too numerous to mention by name, in a multiplicity ofd isciplines,
The complex structural synthesis which Durand has evolved uses as its basis aspects of
who have generously and help.folly given specialised advice concerning vocabulary
the Russian Bechterev's reflexology andJ ung's notion ofa rchetypes. It uses as material
and nomenclature.
for its demonstration the Bechterevian notion ofd ominant human reflexes (postural,
digestive, sexual) and examples taken from important world myths. Our special thanks to jean-Claude Lacherez, our most scholarly and painstaking
publisher, and to Valerie de Berquelle for her carefal reading oft he completed trans
Written at the height of the Structuralist vogue, the book belongs, as its name
lation and all her other help.
indicates, to that tradition. It has not dated, however, because it does not leave itself
open to the same criticisms - the refasal to incorporate change and the diachronic we also take this opportunity to thank the University ofS ydney for .financial aid
perspective - as does the work ofc ertain other Structuralists. The protean nature of for our project.
the image is at the heart ofD urand's thought and the binary structural base he posits In our translation we have observed the following procedures:
is dynamised at the outset by the possibilities oft he ternary, which he incorporates in
• where certain key concepts and terms in Durand were difficult to translate into
his model. Thus he postulates two main Orders ofi mage, the diurnal and the noc
English we noted this in footnotes, giving the original French and explaining the
turnal, corresponding to two general types of imagination. The Diurnal Order is
conceptual problem entailed;
characterised as di&retic, whereas within the Nocturnal Order are to be found two
subgroupings: the synthetic and the mystic. These categories are underpinned by the • where Durand has quoted from a French author, we have either translated it
ourselves, or, if appropriate, used existing translations. For literary texts we have
reflex dominants.
given the original French in a footnote;
In France, Durand's work is well known to scholars in the areas ofp hilosophy,
psychology and psychoanalysis, literary and cultural studies, sociology, history ofr eli • mythological and other proper names are given in their conventionally accepted
gions and anthropology. In the English-speaking world, however, because oft he lan English form, where this is known.
guage barrier, his work tends to be known only to literary scholars in the area of
Margaret Sankey and Judith Hatten
French Studies. In translating this book into English we have sought to make this rich
and fascinating work available to the fall range ofA nglophone scholars who could
profitably read it.
The book can be approached in several different ways, although its fall richness is
only apparent ifi t is read carefally from beginning to end. However, because oft he
excellent index it contains, it can also be used, and it is used effectively, as a diction
ary ofs ymbols, unique because oft he structural links it provides between groupings of
images. Its relevance is due, amongst other things, to the fact that it continues to be
consulted as a use.fol typology of images for scholars working in the areas ofs ocial
sciences, literature, and on other aspects ofs ymbolic thought.
Paul Patton in the Penguin Dictionary ofP hilosophy, ed. Thomas Mautner, Penguin,
1
l
1997.pp.268-9.
Table ofC ontents
INTRODUCTION
Pages
"Two-bit" images
Critique of classical theories of the imagination. The Sartrean imaginary.
Denkpsychologie. The classical confusion ofs emiology with semantics. The
symbol and the homogeneity of the signifier and signified. Richness
of the image ....................................................................................................... 23
The symbol and its motivatiom
Non-linearity of meaning. Critique of symbolic classifications. Natural
ism of Krappe and Eliade, elementary materialism of Bachelard,
sociologism ofDumezil and Piganiol, evolutionism of Przyluski. Psycho
analysis and repression. The anthropological method. Rejection of
psychologism and culturalism. Idea of the "anthropological dialectic':.
Sociopetal and sociofugal motivations ............................................................... 33
The method ofc onvergence and methodological psychologism
Convergence, analogy and homology. The ideas of isotopy, polarisation
and of the "constellation of images". The necessity of discourse.
Psychologism as a simple method. Dynamic axioms of the imaginary.
Dominant reflexes and primordial gestures. The three dominant reflexes
according to Bechterev and his school. The postural, digestive and rhyth-
mico-sexual dominants. Motricity and representation ........................................ 43
Cultural factors, plan and vocabulary
The technological environment. The technological and objectal complex.
The direct complements of the dominant reflexes: tools and milieu, affec
tive schemata. Symbolic categories and Dumezilian classifications. The
principle of the plan: bipartition and tripartition. The vocabulary of
archetypology: schema, archetype and symbol; myth, structures and
Orders ................................................................................................................ 52
BOOK ONE
THE DIURNAL ORDER OF THE IMAGE
1
The first Order of the imaginary is that of a well-defined antithesis. 66
CONTENTS CONTENTS 13
12
PART II
PART I
THE SCEPTRE AND THE SWORD
THE FACES OF TIME
Isotopy of the ascensional schema based on the postural reflex of "monar
Chapter l - THERIOMORPHIC SYMBOLS chical vision" and on purificatory practices and symbols of separation.
The Tarot figures of the sword and the sceptre-baton ....................................... 119
Significance of the Bestiary. Banality of the Bestiary. Linguistic categories
of the animate and the inanimate. Critique of psychoanalytical theses. Chapter I - AsCENSIONAL SYMBOLS
Deeper motivations than the CEdipus complex .................................................. 67
Verticality and ascension. The "axiomatic metaphor" of verticality. Reli
Schema of the animate. Diagnosis of anxiety (Rorschach). Restless activ- gious ascensional practices: the shamanic ladder. The holy mountain,
ity. Writhing and chaos. Zwang. The "Mazeppa complex" .................................. 70
bethel, kratophany, toponymical data in French folklore. Gorgon, Corbel
The chthonian, infernal horse. The Erinyes. The nightmare. The black "stone" and Corbel "bird". 121
sun and the solar horse. The aquatic horse. The horse and thunder. The wing and angelism. Deanimalisation of the bird through the wing.
Hippomorphic semantism. Bovine symbols, pre-Aryan doublets of the The lark, eagle, dove, Sophia, Holy Spirit and aeroplane. Volatility and
hippomorphic symbol. Bulls as masters of the hurricane. Tarasques. Bes alchemical subtlety. The angel. .......................................... . 126
73
tiality and animality.
Sagittarius, the arrow and the bow. The Upanishadic symbolism of trans
The archetype of the Ogre. The mordicant, and the image of devouring cendence. 129
jaws. The wolf and the Anubis phobia. The lion. Kronos, Orcus and Ogre.
Cannibalistic Satanism ...................................................................................... 82 Uranian sovereignty. Gigantism and power. Universality of the Great
Uranian God. Monarchical contemplation. The king and father. The
Chapter II - NYCTOMORPHIC SYMBOLS virilisation of monarchical power. Jupiter and Romulus. The sovereign
The archetype and status of darkness. "Black shock" (Rorschach). Vesperal warrior and the jurist. The priest king and the jurist king. 131
depression. Hatred of the black person. Antisemitism, anticlericalism. The leader. The universal worship of skulls, heads and tail. Horns and
Blindness. The "old king". The double of darkness and the mirror. trophies. Totem and talisman: vicariousness of the taboo ........................ . 136
88
Tetzcatlipoca.
Conclusion. Ascensional symbolism as a reconquest of lost power.
The symbol of"sad" water. Stymphalisation. Evolution of the symbolism Reconquest through ascension aimed at transcending time, through the
of water. The archetype of the Dragon. Tears and Ophelia-isation. Hair rapidity of flight and through monarchical virility. 140
93
and toilet. Feminisation of water. The myth of Actaeon.
Chapter II - SPECTACULAR SYMBOLS
The femme fatale. The black moon, menstruation and death. The terrible
Light and sun. Common isotopy of the sky and light. Dyaus and Divus.
mother, the witch, the "vamp". Femininity and animality. The spider and
its toils. The worm and the hydra. The bonds of death. Menstrual blood Celestial purity and whiteness. The golden and the azure. 141
and temporal sin. The myths of Mousso-Koroni and Kali. Nycto- The rising sun. The solar divinities, the Orient. Tlalocan and the isotopy
99
morphic isotopy. of the Orient for the ancient Mexicans. The phrenix. The crown and the
halo. 144
Chapter Ill - CATAMORPHIC SYMBOLS
The schema of the fall. First manifestation of fear. Heaviness, vertigo, The eye and the word. Light-vision isotopy. Vision and distance. The eye
of the father. The solar and Uranian eye. Overdeterminism of the eye:
Icarus, Tantalus, Phaeton, Mictlantecutli, Tzontemoc. The fall as punish
"divinities with a thousand eyes". The one-eyed person and "second sight".
ment. Feminisation of the fall. Sexualisation of the fall. The euphemism
109 The symboi'ic intellectual and moral value of the eye. 146
of the flesh.
Isotopy of light and the word. The Runes. Word and mantra; the dhikr.
The archetype of the flesh. Digestive belly and sexual belly. The intestine,
114 Bambara "mottoes". 149
sewer, labyrinth, intestinal hell.
Conclusion. Isotopy of ascension, luminosity and vision. Knowledge at a
Summary of the three chapters. Isotopy of the symbols of devastating
118 distance through the word and sight. 153
time and death. Hyperbolical Kronos.
,,.,.
14 CONTENTS CONTENTS 15
Chapter III - DI1ERETIC SYMBOLS PART I
The weapons of the hero. Clarity and the demand for distinction. Isotopy THE DESCENT AND THE CUP
of weapons and ascendent archetypes. The cutting sword and virile Mars.
Chapter l SYMBOLS OF INVERSION
The weapons ofs olar and Christian heroes. The vanquishers of the dragon.
"Societies of men", chivalric orders. The sword and bludgeoning weap Expression of euphemism and antiphrasis. Ambiguity of the language of
ons. The problem of the hero as binder. The antiphrasis of bonds: the euphemism. Isotopy of the symbols of euphemism: feminine figures,
binder bound. Compromise and symbolic antiphrasis. The magic weapon. aquatic and telluric depth, food, plurality, richness and fecundity. .................... 193
Athena and Arachne. Protective weapons: the ambivalence of armour.
Inversion and double negation. Caution and descent. Visceral slowness.
Closure, partition, walls and weapons .............................................................. 154
Crena:sthetic heat. Euphemisation of the sexual and the digestive bellies.
Baptism and purification. Spiritual and ritual "weapons". Purity and pu- Antiphrasis and repetition. The case of the cynocephalic St Christopher.
rification. The circumcision knife. Bambara circumcision. Tonsure. Lustral The conversion of chthonian values. Double negation. Double negation
water and limpidity. 164 and Verneinung. The semantism of antiphrasis ................................................. 197
Purifying fire. The ambivalence of fire. Fire as light, the fire bird, the Containment and doubling. The Jonah complex. The Ogre versus Jonah.
word as fire. Spirituality of fire. Air. Prana. Pranayama as a technique of Jonah "cubed". Doubling through swallowing. The great swallower
lustral air. Psyche, soul. Ether. Saponins and detergents. 167 Gargantua. Syncretism of the active and passive senses. Doubling in the
Conclusion. The dia:retic arsenal. 172 novel and Romantic inversion. Surrealist reversal ............................................. 200
The theme ofc ontainment. "Gulliverisation". Tom Thumbs, Kobolds and
Chapter IV - THE DIURNAL ORDER AND SCHIZOMORPHIC STRUCTURES
Lilliputian reveries. The "little brother" ofHaitian folklore. Tom Thumbs
OF THE IMAGINARY
and Dactyls. The power of the very small. The Pikus, the legendary head
The isotopy of Diurnal Order images. 173 gear of the dwar£ Virility and inverted gigantism ............................................. 204
Extension of the Diurnal Order ro the philosophic and scientific Welt The fish, as a "containing" animal. Icthyomorphic containment in the
anschauung: Samkhya, Plaronism, Gnosis, Carcesianism. The debate Kalevala. Osiris and the oxyrhynchus. Ea-Oannes. The siren Melusine:
between cytologists and histologists. 174 Isotopes of the fish in Dogon mythology. ........................................................ 208
Schizomorphic structures and schizoid typology. The syndrome of the Hymn to Night. The reverse of day. Ambivalence of the "Dark Night".
sword. Morbid rationalism. 177 From St John of the Cross to Novalis. The place of deep repose ....................... 211
The first structure. Pragmatic deficit. Autism. 179 Colour, as a euphemism for night. Prisms and gems. Dye and substance.
The second structure. Spa/tung and abstraction. The bronze wall. 180 The alchemical palette. Dense water. The multi-coloured in M. Bona-
parte's autoanalysis. The veil oflsis and Maya. The cloak of the goddess.
The third structure. Morbid geometrism. Gigantisation. 180 The Kaunakes ................................................................................................... 213
The fourth structure. Antithesis. The conflict with time. Morbid plan The melodic palette. Music as the nocturnal. Romantic mescalinisation.
ning. Immobility and petrification. 181 The euphemisation of time. . ........................................................................... 217
Conclusion. Isotopy and schizomorphic coherence. 183 Mater and Materia. The antiphrasis of the fimme fatale. The Great Aquatic
Mother. The child's name "Mama". Semantic pressure on the semiology
of language. Mother Louisine and the Aquaster of the alchemists. Proto
BOOK TWO
plastic mercury. Stella Maris. Melusine genealogy. 218
THE NOCTURNAL ORDER OF THE IMAGE The Great Telluric Mother. The general environment. Hollows in the
earth and springs. The motherland. The vaginal furrow. 222
"One wearies of being a Platonist". The dangers of the cave. Replacement
The Romantic worship of women. Feminine geniuses: Brentano, Novalis
of antithesis by euphemism. Conjugation ofKronos, Eros and Thanatos:
and Tieck. Feminoid isotopy in the romantic poetics. Poe and Lamartine.
euphemisation of the fall into descent and of the abyss into the cup. Night
Women and waves in the work of the Surrealists. Psycho-pathological
as a prelude to dawn. 187
data. From the inverse to the intimate. ............................................................ 224
/
16 CONTENTS CONTENTS 17
The third structure: sensoriality of representations. Intuitive aptitude. The
Chapter II - SYMBOLS OF INTIMACY
data of the Rorschach test. Van 'Gogh's pictorial writing as "colour res-
The romb and repose. The euphemisation of death. Tombs and cradles. ponse" .............................................................................................................. 264
The sarcophagus and the chrysalis. The rite of burial. Secret rooms and
The fourth structure: detail and miniaturisation. Literary microcosmis
sleeping beauties. Romantic necrophilia. The mother and death. Claus-
ation. Van Gogh and "small subjects". The Kwacho. The art oflandscape
rration and insularity. The antiphrasis of death ................................................ 228
as Gulliverisation. The Ikebana. The mystical landscape of Far-Eastern
The dwelling and the cup. Isoropy of containers. From Kusthos to Kuatos. painting. Resume: the four structures. From the Cup to the Denary. ...•........... 266
The cave. The anthropomorphic dwelling. The small house in the large:
the corner. The universe for and the universe against. The place of inti- PART II
macy. ............................................................................................................... 233
FROM THE DENARY TO THE BATON
The paradisiacal centre. The holy place. The Templum. The holy wood.
The Tantric mandala. The mandala and depth psychology. The surround- Chapter I - CYCLICAL SYMBOLS
ing wall as a square and as a circle. The ubiquity of the centre .......................... 238
The control of time. Control through repetition, control through progress.
The ship and the boat. The symbolic polyvalence of the boat. The fune- The Denary and the Baron. Cyclical and progressive myths and schemata. .......... 271
real navigator. The Ark. The Nautilus and nautical comfort. Lamartine's
The lunar cycle. Doubling and repetition. The calendar. The annual
skiff. The motorcar and the caravan ................................................................. 241
return. Quadripartition of the ancient Mexican calendar. The phases of
Gulliverisation of the container. The boot. St Christopher and St Nicholas. the moon. Arithmology. The numbers three and four. Plural deities. The
The shell. The hermetic egg. The cosmic egg. The vase. The isoropy of sacred triad. Trinity and tetranity. Coincidentia oppositorum. Bi-unity.
the Grail. Liturgical cups and cauldrons. The microcosmic holy vase. The Janus ................................................................................................................ 273
vase and the sromach. From container to content. ........................................... 244
The androgyne. Hermaphrodite deities. Ritual emasculation. Integration
Food and substances. Alimentary substantialism. Substance as intimacy. of the negative. Satan, the black angel. A cyclical world-vision. Change. .......... 281
The almond and intoxication. . ...................... 248
The agro-lunar drama. Plant cycle and lunar cycle. Isotopy of the Earth as
Milk, the archetypal food. Maternal milk. Mystical breasts. The many mother, and the moon. Virtue of herbs. Plant transformation. Universal-
breasted goddess. Cultures and food. Milk and honey. The holy potion. ity of astrobiology. ........................................................................................... 285
The Soma. Cosmic wine. The "waters oflife". Ritual drinking and com
The passion of the Son. The Son and the androgyne. The Son as media
249
munion through intoxication.
tor. Isotopy of the mediator, the messiah, the couple, and the triad ac
Alimentary gold. Gold as distinct from the golden. Salt, gold and sap. cording to Levi-Strauss. Hermes-Trismegistus. The product of the
Chymical quintessences. Precious excrement. Avarice and realism. Slime "chymical wedding". Mercury and the devil. The alchemical myth. The
and mud. Rhine gold. The Nocturnal Order of gold and the Diurnal Twice-born. Romantic confirmation ................................................................ 289
Order of the sword. The Dumezilian antinomy: Sabines and Romans .............. 253
Initiation. The mysteries of Isis. Initiatory murilation. Tearing, castra-
Outline of an inverted hell. Nocturnal indulgence. The night is not pol tion, flagellation. The infirm god ..................................................................... 295
258
emical. Sacrifice. Sacrificial ritual of the corn-god. The festival as euphemisation.
Chapter III - THE MYSTICAL STRUCTURES OF THE IMAGINARY Litotes and linguistic anriphrasis. The commercial essence of sacrifice. Sa-
crifice, the double negation of death. Sacrifice and the control of time ............. 297
Choice of the term "mystic''. Mystical structures and glischromorphic
syndromes ........................................................................................................ 259 The orgy. Chaos and deluge. Festivals and lunar isotopy. 300
The first structure: doubling and perseveration. The Rorschach test and The Bestiary of the moon. Euphemisation of the Bestiary. Dragon and
ixoid types. Thematic viscosity. Constants in Van Gogh. 260 monster: symbols of totalisation. The teratological fantastic. 301
The second structure: the viscosity of representative elements. The theme The snail. Universality of spiral symbolism. The bear. The hare and the
of the bridge in Van Gogh. Frequency of verbs. The viscous and the cos- lamb. Insects, Cmstacea, Batrachia and reptiles. The chrysalis. Beerle and
mic. 262 frog. 302
18 CONTENTS CONTENTS 19
The ophidian symbol. The shedding of the skin and the ouroboros. The The fourth structure: progress. Hypotyposis of the future. Romans, Celts,
cosmic serpent. The plumed serpent. The naga. The master of waters and Maya and Semites. Messianism and alchemy. Control of time and tech-
fertility. The phallic serpent. The Kundalini. The chthonian animal. The nical acceleration of history. Summary of the four structures ............................ 340
ophidian manifestation of time. ....................................................................... 305
Chapter N - MYTHS AND MEANING
Technology of the cycle. Atropos and Clotho. Spindle, distaff and wheels.
Mythical narrative and archetypal symbolism. Critique of Levi-Strauss's
Cloth. Epistemology of tissue. Warp and woo£ ................................................ 310
method. The mytheme is beyond language. Semantic density of myth.
The archetype of the wheel. Maya ball game. Zodiac. Swastika and Structure as symptom rather than form ........................................................... 342
triskelion. Axial asymmetry and localised symmetry. Body paintings of
Diachronism, synchronism and semantism. Symbolic isotopy the only
the Caduveo. Layout of the Bororo village. The yoke and the cart.
key to synchronism. Myth and the rhythmical structure of music. Relat-
Euphemisation of harnessing. The mythology of the circle ............................... 312
ing and repeating. . .......................................................................................... 346
Chapter II - FROM THE RHYTHMIC SCHEMA TO THE MYTH OF PROGRESS
Example from S. Comhaire-Sylvain's thesis: Maman d'l'eau and its vari
The cross and fire. Polysymbolism of the cross. Xiuhtecutli, the god of ants. Redundancy of mythical ordeals. Nocturnal inversion. Diving and
fire, and the totalising symbolism of the Mexican cross. The arani and the the mythical voyage. The theme of small containers. The theme of ali-
cross. Fire, the son of the wooden cross. Vesta. Fire and fertility. The fric- mentary content. The story, Maman d'l'eau, as an illustration of mystical
tion fire-lighter. Churn and polisher. The schema of alternating move- structures. 348
ment. ............................................................................................................... 317
Second example: the Haitian story Domangage. The Saviour's struggle
Technical rhythm and sexual rhythm. Fire and the "chymical wedding". with the theriomorphic monster. Euphemisations of the monster.
Fire and sexuality. Rhythmical overdetermination. Mastery of fire. Mas Soteriological aides. Revelation of the secret. Domangage as an illustra
ter of songs. Musical rhythm and sexuality. Symbolism of Sudanese drums. tion of the synthetic structures. 353
Shiva-Nataraja. Mythical isotopy of the ritual object of Lo-Lang. From
I Ambiguous character of myth: intermediary between epic or logical nar
the igneous product to progress ....................................................................... 321
rative and the semantism of the symbol. Myth, non-rational discourse.
Meaning of the tree. Bivalency of the tree. The tree of life. The wood of Myth and ritual. Myth is above all a synthetic organisation of "swarms" of
the tree. Verticalisation of the tree .................................................................... 327 images. 357
The column. The floral capital. The tree as son and the cosmic tree.
BOOK THREE
Yaggdrasil and Balanza. The anthropomorphic tree .......................................... 328
The three trees and the Jesse complex. Cycle and progressionism. The TOWARDS A THEORY
upside-down tree. Messianism of the tree ......................................................... 331 OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL FANTASTIC
Chapter III - THE SYNTHETIC STRUCTURES OF THE IMAGINARY AND STYLES OF HISTORY
Chapter I - UNIVERSALITY OF ARCHETYPES
Problems: analysis destroys synthesis. Syntony and coincidentia oppos-
itorum. 333 Orders of the imaginary, semantism of images. Ofw hich ontological proc
ess can this semantism and its Orders be the sign? This philosophy of the
The first structure: harmonisation of contraries. The musical imagina imaginary is a "transcendental fantastic". Typological and historical ob-
tion. General organisation of contrasts. Pure music as ideal. Music as vic jections. . .......................................................................................................... 363
tory over time. The systematic mind. Astrobiology as primordial philoso-
phy. ............................................................, . ..................................................... 334 Psychological types and archetypes. Non-coincidence of typologies Oames,
Jung) with the Orders of the image. Confusion of the term "type". The
The second structure: dialectics. The law of musical contrast. Drama and notion of "atypitality" in psychopathology. Dichotomy of fantastic crea-
music. The sonata form. Theatrical and fictional peripeteia. Archetype of tions and the biographical character. ................................................................ 365
the passion of the Son ..................................................................................... 336
Sexual types and archetypal Orders. Thesis of the androgynate: the femi-
The third structure: history. Rhythms of history. Hypotyposis of the past. nine animus and masculine anima. Neither characterological typology
The present of narration. History as synthesis. Styles of history: praxis nor the typology of the sexes accounts for a particular Order of the image ............ 367
and fable. India and Rome .............................................................................. 338
21
CONTENTS
20 CONTENTS
Antiphrasis, the schematism of the mystical structures. Decoration and
Archetypes and historical pressures. Pedagogy of events. Localisation of the desire to advance in the arts. Inverted polysemy. Antilogy and litotes.
the Orders in history. "Classics and Romantics" according to Ostwald. Miniaturisation in metonymy and synecdoche. 403
Idealist and realist phases according to G. Michaud ......................................... 369
Hypotyposis, the schematism of the synthetic structures. Repetition and
Explanation of the phases and Orders ofimages through repression. Con- the abolition of time. Reminder of the meaning of music and history.
flict of generations and conflict of the Orders .................................................. 371 Varieties ofhypotyposis: enallage and hyperbaton. Rhetoric as a formali
sation of the fantastic. From the semantic to the semiological. 405
Explanation by the overdetermination and concordance of currents of
opinion: the example of Romanticism ............................................................. 373
"Basic personalities" and linguistic segregation. History, place and mo CONCLUSION
ment motivate but do not explain. Universality of archetypes. 376
Rehabilitation of the fantastic and its domains. What is universally liked
The fantastic function. Critique ofLacroze's thesis: its bias and contradic without being conceptualised and what is of universal value without be
tions. The fantastic function extends beyond repression. Critique of
ing rationalised. The specific truth of the human phenomenon. The hon-
Barthes's semiological thesis. The plenary world of the fantastic, its rela our of poets ...................................................................................................... 407
tions with creation and invention, its practical, axiological role. 378
Demystification and myths. Schizomorphic exclusion in our time. The
Chapter II - SPACE, THE A PRIORI FORM OF THE FANTASTIC cult of objectivity. The antinomy of demythiflcation. Poetry, the inalien
408
The immediacy of the fantastic. Contradictions between immediacy and able.
concrete duration. Critique !lf the primacy of duration and time in Bergson For a pedagogy and a science of the fantastic. Symbolic realisation, therapy
and Kant. "Unthinkable" duration. Enduring, delaying, preserving. of the waking dream. Realisation of rhetoric and literary studies. 410
Memory versus time. Memory, a department of the fantastic. Childhood
memories. Reminiscence and time re-discovered. The euphemistic role of The imaginary as a mark of our ontological vocation. The euphemistic
fabulation. The arts as a struggle against decay and death. 383 cogito confronted with alienation. Orpheus and Jason. 411
Fantastic space and space according to physics. Euphemistic distanciation.
Euclidian space is an imaginary space. Space, our friend .................................. 391
Appendices
The properties of fantastic space. The triple genetic tiers of space accord-
Table oft he isotopic classification ofi mages 416
ing to Piaget ..................................................................................................... 393
General list ofr eferences quoted .......................................................................... 419
Ocularity and topology. Natural mescalinisation. Depth and projective
relations. The false problem of the third dimension ......................................... 394 Alphabetical index ofm ythokgical proper names ................................................. 43 5
Ubiquity and homogeneiry. From doubling to spatial non-time. Similari- Alphabetical index ofs ymbolic, archetypal and mythical themes ............................ 441
ties and equalities, participation and ambivalence. Fantastic space as an
a priori form of hope ...................................................................................... 395
Chapter III - THE TRANSCENDENTAL SCHEMA OF EUPHEMISM
Categories, structures and syntax. The cardinal points of fantastic space
and structural categories. The role of rhetoric and discourse. Rhetoric as a
"transcendental schematism'' of the imaginary. The power of translatio.
The essence of rhetoric; metaphor and its modes: simile, metonymy, syn-
ecdoche, antonomasia and catachresis .............................................................. 397
Antithesis and hyperbole, the schematism of the schizomorphic struc-
tures. The style of "in-spite-of". Development of a psychopathological
example. The locus of hyperbole and antithesis. Artistic catharsis. Expres-
sion, design and syntax. ................................................................................... 401