Nadja by Andre Breton - Book Report/Review Example

s Nadja by Andre Breton Inspired by Freudian and Jungian theories about human psyche, therandom images produced by the sub-conscious mind were often considered to be a sign of mental confusion, but to surrealists like Andre Breton, it signified highly sophisticated level of intelligence. The aforementioned belief then transcended into a cultural movement called ‘Surrealism’. Breton became the pioneer in incorporating surrealism in literature and visual arts. The notion was further discussed in Breton’s critically acclaimed romance titled Nadja, in which surrealism was a major sub-genre that further elaborated the basic idea behind the term. The story is not only a case-study of a woman with profound perception of the world and life, who later descends into madness, but also follows the writer’s personal transformation as well. (Watson et.al. 2002) The novel became a momentous contribution while the movement was still in its embryonic stage. The plot revolves around the author’s obsession with a woman named Nadja, whom he meets in Paris. She haunts the author for a considerable amount of time, but by the end of the novel she is institutionalized after being diagnosed with ‘schizophrenia’. It is a tragic fate for Nadja, but her insanity is deemed as the prime source of conflict for the narrator and paves the path of self-discovery for him. While Nadja loses herself in an asylum, the author subsequently finds himself through the establishment of surrealist consciousness. The relationship between Nadja and the author is described through vague metaphors in a non-linear fashion with 44 pictures that depict pictures of their rendezvous points, Nadja’s sketches and surrealist art. Conception of surrealist notions was triggered by the psychodynamic paradigm that proposed that thought processes and behaviors were caused by the interaction between conscious and the unconscious mind. According to this paradigm, the main driving force behind such interaction is an individual’s sex drive or libido. However, unlike using the model to understand or resolve mental conflicts, surrealists use it as a form of artistry. The surrealist elements are not only ostensible through the notions discussed in the novel, but the sentence structuring and vocabulary also contain the same essence. Besides the titular character that embodied mystery, the vocabulary and metaphors are most cryptic in nature and give the novel the elements of both poetry and a prose. Nadja herself had been an avid lover of various surrealist artists and writers, including the works of Breton himself. Through her encounter with a woman as cryptic and mysterious as Nadja, Breton makes profound examination of his reality and existence. The relationship between the author and Nadja juxtaposes the male rationality with female irrationality that depicts the extent to which they complement each other. Breton’s affections for Nadja transcends into fascination and inspiration because of her general outlook on life and taste in art that coincided so much with his. It was his love for Nadja that eventually led him to denounce all the mundane affairs of life and Breton actually became more interested in an individual’s personal motivations and inspiration rather than their actual work. His romantic involvement with Nadja propelled Breton’s surrealist project forward. It discusses how a woman plays a central role in establishing a male vision of society. Nadja’s feminine eccentricities and impaired reality testing is what piques a rational male that is another trait of surrealist notions about the world. Breton is at first fascinated by the ideology of a woman, who turns out to be mad that forces him to question his own identity as the novel starts off with the question, “Qui suis-je?” or ‘Who am I?’ That clearly indicates the author’s struggle with his own existence (Breton, 1960, p. 11). His encounter with a woman like Nadja was a surreal experience or a dream-like reality for him, where he came to terms with his own sub-conscious mind. Breton incorporates automatism, a key surrealist technique that focuses the automatic, irrational thought processes projecting them on to a woman. Nadja was also the center of the author’s raw and primitive sexual love, and depicted the surrealist feminine side and ideals of masculinity. To understand the world from a wider perspective, the author has used the minute disparity between sanity and insanity; which according to surrealists is that the latter is closer to his or her unconscious mind than the former. Her understanding of the world is too overwhelming that eventually leads her to a sanatorium, but prior to that the author distances himself from her and ends his relationship with her. (Watson, 2002) It is through Nadja’s absence that the readers come to know of the depth of Breton’s romantic involvement with her. He spirals down into depression, where he keeps on brooding over her departure. Conscious mind and rationality would have told Breton to continue on with his life, but it is ostensible that Nadja became an essential part of his life. It clearly left an emptiness within him that triggered the melancholia and therefore, this led to a greater comprehension of surrealism that used art and various literary techniques as a form of catharsis to understand the demands of their psyche. The story incorporates visual and literary symbolism that leaves a lot for the readers to absorb and draw conclusions from – nothing is fully explained by the author himself. Nadja transcends into an entity that signified freedom, beauty and wonder. The word Nadja was derived from a Spanish word that meant ‘No one’ and also means ‘hope’ in Russian; therefore, it is speculated that the name was indeed made up by Breton in order to describe the personality of his lover. However, the character itself was based on a real personality. She acted as one of the main motivations that spurred surrealist traits in the author, particularly his imagination. Eventually, Nadja becomes an embodiment of madness. The author has created countless surreal comparisons, as Nadja also creates a contrast between rationality and irrationality. It shows that regardless of the question of sanity, every individual possesses an imagination that unlike reality has no bounds and can help an individual venture out into many unchartered territories. The story unfolds the machinations of the author’s unconscious mind that had been piqued greatly by Nadja’s views. The author’s obsession with Nadja seems unusual, but the account of their entire romance and her departure are quite bizarre. Dreams are treated as a formal psychological notion as per Freudian and Jungian perspective, but surrealists consider dreams a basic part of our reality that paves the path of free association. His works incorporate the application of various psychological notions such as displacement, sublimation and condensation. The author displaces his ambivalence triggered by Nadja on his existence and the general attributes of his life. His obsession can also be treated as a form of sublimation, whereby Breton transformed his unusual idealization of and fixation on Nadja in to a socially acceptable movement of Surrealism. He further employs literary and visual techniques, whereby two objects or notions that may or may not have any relevant relationship, are combined to form a single concept. The idea becomes more pronounced in dreams, which Breton deems as too cryptic to be subjected to psychoanalysis. Moreover, for the author dreams are not just a method to understand one’s inhibitions, but they also play a crucial role in defining our experiences that is transformed into dynamic meditation punctuated by epiphantic moments in one’s life. (Breton, 1960, p. 24) The account of the romance is quite puzzling and intriguing at the same time that was also acknowledged by the author. He stated, “You could never see this star as I do. You dont understand: Its like the heart of a heartless flower” (Breton, 1960, p. 71). The author compares her to a star because she is as distant as one, yet the author had known her as a woman so well. It is ostensible from the latter part of the quote, as she was an integral part or the heart of the author’s life, but she left a huge void when she left as if she had never been there. She was the main inspiration behind all of the author’s ambitions and aspirations; however, her presence had been so surreal that when she left, the author began questioning his own reality. The author emanates a sense of longing and yearning through his narration, which is deeply affected by the same rumination. Nadja herself was a notion that appealed to the author only in theory, because her reality had become convoluted with the loss of her sanity. This is exactly why the author was compelled to cease his relationship with her, but what he did not realize was the fact that unconsciously Breton had become reliant on her. Their bond and emotional involvement was essential for him, but the emotional involvement clashed with the rational mind that couldn’t decipher whether Nadja’s views had any real meaning or were just ramblings of a mad person. In conclusion, surrealism is an important part of the novel in every way; the notion is heavily embedded in the general premise and the characterization. As stated earlier, the notion exudes from the layout of its content and language. Despite all of it, the concept is still treated only as a sub-genre, as the prime focus of the novel is still on the two protagonists and only through their relationship, the pertinence of surrealist elements come into clear sight. Andre Breton has used a number of hidden messages that can be understood only through in-depth perusal of the novel. According to surrealists, these are the workings of the unconscious mind that come to surface and therefore, one needs to comprehend surrealist philosophy well to understand the complexity of Nadja and the emotions she incited within the narrator. Works Cited Breton, Andre. ‘Nadja’. New York: Grove Press. 1960, p.p 11, 24, 71 Watson, Simon et.al. ‘Surrealism and Painting’. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications. 2002. Read More