Abstract:
This research aims to highlight the social function of fantasy literature of X1Xième century as a
reflection of the life of a society at a given time.Through the theme of the invisible world and the
unknown, we try to discover the importance that the authors of this century agree in the fantasy genre.
We try also to discover whether there are links between this fantasy genre and mental illness among
authors embracing fantastic.Our study is based on fantastic stories of two prominent French authors:
Gerard de Nerval and Guy de Maupassant. We relied on supernatural themes, hallucinations and dreams,
which the two authors address widely in selected stories.The researcher tries to marry the structural,
historical and thematic approaches to psychological study the works selected as corpus by applying the
analysis of issues and because psychoanalysis is in a dreamlike way. This work tries to focus the
relationship between this fantastic writing and mental disorders narrators representatives of authors of
such vaguely addressed in the nineteenth century.Several cultural, religious, social and economic factors
emphasize to the belief in the invisible world. Technology and scientific progress all mad gives the urge
to resort to the unknown and the supernatural. This drives people in search of a spiritual path to find a
shelter even if it is imaginary for them to escape the fiery reality.
