My first impression of Breton’s Nadja was that it was a novel with a lot of illustrations, to the point where the illustrations took up quite a bit of space. This reminds me of the children’s books I read as a child, which also had many animated images. The significance of the existence of illustrations is not only to a large extent can help to understand the reading content, and can be done to imagine things for the materialization, that is to say, will only exist in the virtual world of a kind of image formulated a specific image presented to the reader. On this basis, even a fictionalized story can seem more real with the presence of illustrations.
Although I am not sure why Breton adds a lot of images to his work, I can perceive that he visualizes the people and things he discusses directly through images. It is interesting to note that the appeal of literature in most cases is because it gives the reader enough room for imagination, and it is because of this unrestricted space for imagination that the reader can fill in the storyline with a colorful filter on top of it. For instance, if I were to say now close your eyes and picture in your mind a cup of water on the table, I’m sure every answer that could be given would be very distinctive, and that’s what I mean when I say that imagination adds color to the story itself. What Breton does, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. For instance, Breton refers to “the Lovers’ Flower” in the text. In fact, the name is very abstract and imaginative, but soon we see the image of ‘the Lover’s Flower’, and it is here that the reader’s imagination is suspended by the image, and is replaced by a figurative understanding of ‘the Lovers’ Flower’. Therefore, I began to think again, could it be that Breton is trying to tell the reader that the facts are the facts, and that there is no need for imagination, and that the reader’s subjectivity might jeopardize the objectivity of the work? Or perhaps, by using illustrations instead of descriptions, Breton introduces a new dimension to his work. The images are like open windows through which the reader sees the real world in which the writer lives. They build a bridge between literature and real life, thus constituting another way for the reader to understand the work? But at the same time, some of these drawings are somewhat abstract and even surrealistic. As a result, the drawings seem obscure to me.
Question for Discussion: What would be your interpretation on these images/illustrations in Nadja?
Thanks for this. But I wonder if you could say a little more about the text (perhaps also in its relation to the images), and not just the illustrations?
Meanwhile, what do you think of the fact that there’s no image of Nadja herself (though in fact a picture of her eyes, and her eyes alone was added to the revised edition)? And what do you think about the images *by* Nadja, and what Breton has to say about them in the text?
Yes! In my perspective, Breton’s descriptions of Nadja fail to accurately outline her external features, making the image fragmented, contradictory, and ambiguous. In addition to Nadja’s repetitive, contradictory and ambiguous appearance, there is also Nadja’s irrational words. Nadja lacks literacy, but she has an amazing intuition for poetry, especially the rebellious and obscure surrealist poetry. Combining Nadja’s own narrative and textual details, as well as the author’s associations and hints, it can be assumed that Nadja belongs to the lowest social class. In order to survive she is always stirred into some lowly and unfortunate events. These degrading and dangerous truths of life make Nadja become precarious again. Nadja considers herself a wandering soul. Nadja has taken it upon herself to break away from the shackles of materialism, and she has come to Paris not for the purpose of survival, but to understand the purpose of people’s busyness, and that work is a form of self-enslavement that does nothing to recognize the self. In this sense, Nadja’s wandering becomes a kind of poetic dwelling, searching for the strange, the unfathomable, the wonderful, and practicing the most complete freedom that Surrealism seeks.Perhaps in the eyes of others, Nadja is mentally challenged, but in the narrator’s point of view she is the unfettered individual, and perhaps the way in which Breton is expressing his thoughts and literary ideas.
I agree with you that imagination adds colour to the story line. Even I found the images and illustrations a little absurd but it still remains a debate as to Breton introduces a new dimension to his work by introducing illustrations or suspends our imaginative power by providing the descriptions as well as illustrations.
Hi Cicy, I agree with you on how the illustrations added another layer for the narration. While for children’s book. illustration aids children for understanding, but in this case, in surrealistic novel, I find it added dreamlike quality. The illustrations were many ways very abstract, or sometimes just images of Paris. I find them adding the layer of freedom and relaxation, to pull reader away from the reality and enter his world of imagination.