In search of the infinite through the study of the feminine figure in Nadja, byAndré Breton, and Voyages de l’autre côté, by Jean-Marie Gustave le Clézio

Abstract

Published in 1975, Voyages de l’autre côté, by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, critically recovers some ideals of the surrealist vanguard in the image of the character Naja Naja that is explicitly associated with the main character of Nadja (1928), by André Breton. Similar to the surrealists, Le Clézio subverts man’s relation with the world by suppressing the daily, utilitarian and practical aspect of life. The author breaks with the surrealist ideas due to his belief that the absolute does not need to be searched in any abstract reality, because it is concretely present in the core of the real. Thus, Le Clézio takes as his own the surrealist vanguard, updating his desires in the context of the contemporary literature. Keywords: Le Clézio. French literature. Contemporary literature.