{"id":77,"date":"2026-01-18T17:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/?p=77"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:38:05","slug":"nadja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/2026\/01\/18\/nadja\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadja"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading Proust’s\u00a0<\/span>Combray<\/span><\/i>, I actually found it easier to work my way through\u00a0<\/span>Nadja<\/span><\/i>, especially during the beginning. It was a little confusing at times, but I am at peace with the non-linear structure. At this point, I have realized that the confusion of it is the point. I enjoyed the first section for that reason. I liked the narrator’s thoughts and descriptions of the places and people, and I especially liked the they were paired with photographs. <\/span><\/p>\n

That said, after finishing the first section, I remember thinking, “Ohhhh okay… where is Nadja?” And then she’s introduced… and things move fast. A little too fast! I really liked Nadja and all that she brought to the story. I liked the moment where she shares her drawings, and even more so because we actually get to see them. That part felt very intimate and touching, and I almost forgot I was supposed to be reading because I was a little too focused on looking at her art. The drawings made her feel very real and kind of bare (I guess you could say.. ?).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as the novel went on, I became increasingly uncomfortable with the dynamic between Nadja and the narrator. Nadja is clearly struggling with her mental health and forms a pretty intense attachment to him, and what bothered me most is that he knows this. He acknowledges it, but instead of really questioning his role in it, he seems fascinated by her dependency. It felt like he was treating her less like a person and more like an experiment. His obsession with the idea that she “needs” him, and the way he places himself as the center of her existence really just irked me. One moment I remember was when he says she takes him “for a god” and thinks of him as “the sun” (p. 111). It’s a little unsettling to me. Knowing that he also has a wife at home made this whole thing even worse for me. Why is he inserting himself so deeply into the life of someone who is clearly extremely vulnerable?<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all of that, I actually did enjoy the third section. I thought that Breton’s critique of institutionalization, especially how it intersects with poverty, made sense to me. Nadja’s fate being tied not just by her mental state but also by her lack of resources was incredibly sad. The part where the narrator recalls Nadja speaking to his wife on the phone and saying, “At times, it is terrible to be so alone. I have no friends but you” (p. 142) felt insanely devastating because it made her isolation so clear. Overall, I think I enjoyed the novel, but I really can’t shake the discomfort regarding Nadja’s treatment. It just made me feel uneasy so… I don’t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Discussion question:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you feel about the relationship between Nadja and the narrator as the novel went on? Did your feelings towards them change at all while reading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading Proust’s\u00a0Combray, I actually found it easier to work my way through\u00a0Nadja, especially during the beginning. It was a little confusing at times, but I am at peace with the non-linear structure. At this point, I have realized that the confusion of it is the point. I enjoyed the first section for that reason. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11,9,10,12],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breton","tag-attachment","tag-love","tag-relationships","tag-surrealism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/emwrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}