The aim of this article is to present the fantastic literature of J.-P. Bours, one of the least known representatives of the Belgian uncanny. His oeuvre is remarkably rich: Bours practices all the sub-genres of the fantastic and remains a master of the short form. In this article, I analyze the distinct characteristic of this fantastic literature: ambiguity. In order to produce this effect, the writer uses a vast array of techniques (like the unsaid and ellipsis), as shown in La Mort du juste.

This article explores the darkened and rarely visited zones of Maria Dąbrowska’s Noce i dnie [ Nights and Days] (1932–1934), a tetralogy of novels usually read as a realist family saga. In its broad panorama children and childhood have a very important place, yet what seems to have largely been ignored is the enigmatic nature of childhood and child's role as a locus of mystery. With the help of tropes of the folk imaginarium (primarily the iconic Grimms’ Fairy Tales), and conceptual tools borrowed from Sigmund Freud, Bruno Bettelheim, Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva, the article analyzes Dąbrowska’s multi‑layered and elusive characters, caught up in an endless strife trying in vain to tame the chaos within themselves and to get to grips with the threatening uncanniness of the world outside.