Task 3 - Todorov - Brief 4

Tzevetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. Lived in France since 1963 writing various books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture history. He has published a total of 21 books, Todorov has also been a visiting proffesor at several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

Todorov's greatest cotribution to literaray theory was his defining of the fantastic, the fantastic uncanny, and the fantastic marvelous. He defines the fantastic as being any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place. Todorov uses Alvaro from Cazotte;s Le Diable Amoureux as an example of a fantastic event. Alvaro must decide whether the woman he is in love with is truly a woman or is she is the devil. The story of course continues...

Awards

- Bronze medal of the CNRS

- The Charles Lévéque Prize of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques

- The first Maugean Prize

- The Académie Française

- The Prince of Asturias Award for social sciences

He is also an officer of the 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'