In her talk, Kukkonen will discuss Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force’s Les jeux d’esprit (1701) in terms of a proto-poetics for the novel. La Force was well-known as a best-selling author of historical novels in her day, but she is also one of the pioneers of the fairy tale. Literary games, Kukkonen suggests, enable what Kendall Walton calls «games of make-belief» and provide the basis for La Force’s reflections around history, fiction and the creation of fictional worlds.
Kukkonen presents at a seminar organised jointly by the “Higher Seminaria” of Literary Studies, Ancient Greek, English and Romance Studies. Read more about the Uppsala University Literary seminar.