Nadja: all or nothing

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Reading André Breton’s Nadja was an interesting experience for me. I honestly did not know what to expect when reading a surrealist novel. For me, the narrative felt like Breton was taking me through his diary, vaguely describing moments, yet at the same time, almost exposing too much. Certain parts, especially regarding the world around him and Nadja felt vague, but Breton’s descriptions of him and Nadja’s ‘affair’ felt like I was hearing something that should be kept secret. I put ‘affair’ in quotations as it is not 100% clear if Nadja reciprocated the same feelings Breton had for her. I also put ‘affair’ in quotations because as I was reading the novel I kept wondering ‘Is she even real??’. While this text is read as autobiographical and it’s clear from the video lecture that the novel is based on true events, I still couldn’t help but feel a sense of Nadja’s nonexistence. Maybe it’s the way she is described by Breton as ‘ethereal’ or how she describes herself as a “lost soul in limbo” on page 71. 

Breton’s description of Nadja felt like an obsession to the point where the object of the obsession becomes a figment of one’s imagination. Like Nadja was this fantasy woman Breton created in his head but never really completed, as seen with her name. I was genuinely waiting for the plot twist where it was actually him in the mental hospital due to him being driven to madness from love. I especially felt this when watching the video lecture and hearing that Nadja is a ‘lyrical manifesto’ and a ‘confession’. I agree with the novel (or ‘not novel’?) as a confession of not only Breton’s ‘affair’ with Nadja but also him confessing to turning Nadja’s story his own. Yes, Nadja said that one day Breton would write a novel about her, but I can’t help thinking a novel about her demise and Breton’s unconscious role in it to be the basis of the novel she wanted to be a character in. 

The ending of the novel, where Nadja is institutionalized without her consent felt like the ending to a movie where the bad guy goes ‘If I can’t have her, then nobody can’. Feeding into the idea of Nadja as this evil seductress that must be contained or else she will lead Breton and others to trouble. Both Nadja and Breton feed off of each other, furthering both of their suspensions of reality. 

I think this leads me to my overall takeaway from the novel highlighted in the ending line “beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.”  of love as an obsession and this ‘all or nothing’ attitude of love. But what is love if not being obsessed with someone… right? But when does this obsession turn to madness? At what point do you step back and realize this situation is not right or healthy? My question for discussion, which may be hard to answer, is where do we draw the line between loving something or someone and being obsessed with them?

 

Combray: how true is a memory?

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My first thought when reading “Combray” by Marcel Proust was, why are these sentences so long? 

It wasn’t until I continued to read the novel and watch the video on Proust that I realized these unconventional grammatical rules and sentence structure were simply a part of modernism. The reason for the length of sentences became clear to me after I watched the video on modernism and understood it as defying typical grammatical rules and structures. This deliberate use of sentence structure allows readers to be more attentive to the story, and almost become a part of the narrative. It also reinforces the idea of representation versus reality that modernism often explores. 

This structure is also important when thinking about the use of multiple-perspective narratives often found in modernist texts, like Combray. These multiple perspectives of present-day Proust and past Proust allow readers to question how authentic a memory can be, even if it is a memory of your own. Questioning the authenticity of memory is established heavily as the narrative voice often flows in and out through temporality. This temporality includes the past and present as well as the sleep and awake narrative. These long, often grammatically incorrect sentences are almost ‘dream-like’ mirroring a dream or memory: without a definite end or beginning as they flow in and out of consciousness.  

The scene that especially stuck out to me was the famous Madeleine scene: when Proust recalls memories of his past after he dips the cake into the tea. The main question I had in this scene as well as throughout the novel is: how true is a memory? In everyday life, there are seemingly ‘meaningless/little’ things that you associate with people, places and moments. Like hearing a song and remembering a past love. But are you remembering the true memory or a romanticized version of the truth? Are we remembering what actually happened, or simply the comfort that the nostalgia brings? 

These questions are highlighted in the title of the book “In Search of Lost Time”. Personally, the title evokes a sense of childhood versus adulthood. As a child, you fantasize about being older and independent, but when you reach adulthood you often find yourself wondering where ‘all the time went’ since you were a child. Again, finding comfort in the nostalgia, and at times using that nostalgia as a form of escapism. 

My question for discussion would be: ‘Do we as humans see the objective truth in memory or the romanticized version we want to see?’ For me, as much as I would like to pretend I’m an objective person, I definitely tend to remember a more romanticized version of my memories and block out the parts that don’t fit that narrative. 

 

intro!

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Hello!!

I’m Maya! I’m in my second year majoring in psychology and minoring in law and society. I’m thinking about going to law school but who knows. I was raised in Calgary but was born in Dubai. I’m excited to take this class to read more books out of my confort zone and from all around the world and exploring new authors.

I would consider myself a reader. I mainly read literary fiction and contemporary novels  but I’ve started exploring some non-fiction/memoirs. My favourite books are Normal People by Sally Rooney (still haven’t seen the show). To answer a question in today’s class, I personally read becasue I love the escapsim aspect. Even if I’m reading non-fantasy books, I still find elements of escapism. Reading is my personal form of self care.

A few fun facts about me:

  • Valentines Day is my favourite holiday
  • I love cats but I’m so allergic
  • I really want to go to Ireland

I find the categorization of Romance Studies very interesting after watching the introduction video. While these romance languages of French, Italian, Spanish… are all very different in their modern form and have different cultural aspects they all come from the same roots. When asked ‘what is the Romance World’ my mind goes to France and Italy as those are often seen as ‘languages of love’ and have a very romantic scenery to them. But I really like the ‘correct answer’ of ‘I don’t know’. That the ‘romance world’ can not exactly be defined geographically due to its expanse around the world, nor linguistically due to the differing dialects. But as stated in the video, the unknown of Romance Studies is what makes it so exciting and it is something that I’m excited to learn this term: bluring the lines of traditional literature and language and allowing the unknown to prevail when reading. I think another important aspect of the Romance World and Romance Literature is the aspects of colonialism. Since many of these empires such as the French and Spanish had colonies and influenced their (the colonies) language and cultures, the stories of the colonies are completely different than the stories of those in the empire. Which leads to a different understanding of the ‘Romance World’ depending on where you are looking at it from. This is also found in reading these texts in translation, which allows for a further loss of culture and language within the story and the real-life context.

My expectation for the semester is a lot of reading but hopefully finding some that I really love!