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The present article, a reflection of a paper given in a 'state of the art'? workshop on critical theory, endeavours to trace some lines of research into a certain form of interaction between literature and psychoanalytical theory, resolutely departing from what is generally referred to as 'applied psychoanalysis.'? Three topics'”the double, the ghost, and trauma'”are successively tackled and illustrated with examples chosen from literary works anterior to Freudian discoveries in order to delve into the principle of 'fluctuation,'? that is the porosity of borders between inner and outside worlds both in the human psyche and its imaginary productions.