unit two
unit three
Le Monde à l’envers: the world upside-down—a topsy-turvy world where things are no longer in their place, where order is disrupted, where hierarchies tumble. This age-old topos serves in the fantastic the key function of revealing the constructed nature of that order, of that hierarchy, of the mandate that everything be in its place. The images gathered here are popular prints that suggest that the relationships between man and the world, man and woman, and man and child are anything but ordained and stable; indeed, they can be understood as absolute only by dint of a sustained and generally accepted illusion. The comic portent of many of these images has a darker side that the fantastic constantly uncovers and explores.
L'ane qui fait mener sa charge à son maître.
Le bÏuf tient la charrue qui est trainée par les laboureurs.
