Western Europe has often considered its eastern counterpart as a suspicious
place populated by vampires, child-eaters and other monsters; in
other words, part and parcel of Europe but at the same time a totally alien
neighbour which still remains a fecund field of imaginary places. Plenty
of examples support this cliché: one may think of Ruritania, where
Anthony Hope’s novel is set, or of Allan Mellet’s Poldévie in "The Prisoner
of Zenda", which appeared in the late 1920s on the right-wing newspaper
"L’Action Française" and was later drawn on by less disputable writers.
Also, other examples are provided by Hergé’s Tintin’s travels to Bordurie
and Syldavie, and by the more recent travel guide Molvania: a land
untouched by modern dentistry by the Australian trio, Santo Cialuro, Tom
Gleisner and Rob Sitch, which was published few years ago.
All of these imaginary places raise some questions about the reasons
underlying the success of these imaginary geographies, about why this
part of Europe produces such a considerable amount of imaginary lands
and the mutual influence existing between these places and “reality”
