Henri Michaux et la multiplicité du moi imaginaire
Henri Michaux and the multiplicity of the imaginary ego
At Henri Michaux we discovered a protean self, that defines itself by a very vast imagination, stemming from uncountable experiences of all kinds. The landscape is more diversified, with descriptions of numerous real and imaginary countries; this proves a subjective expansion of the space that does not have limits anymore. We also notice an alternation between opening and withdrawing, between expectation and departure. We shall also study in this article the connections between the self and the imagination of the body, turned into space at Michaux. The body is not expressed in its materialism, but as an extension of the soul. Finally, we are going to emphasize an importing subject, the abyss, that corresponds to attitudes of the most different, as the expectation, the blocking, the withdrawing, the isolation, the fall, and that engenders an explosion represented by the yell, by the initiative to convey an essential message to the world or by the simple desire of evasion.
Keywords: Henri Michaux, the multiplicity of the ego, literary landscape, Plume
1. Henri Michaux, « Observations », Passages
[1950], in OEuvres complètes, vol. II, Gallimard,
2001.
2. François Trotet, Henri Michaux ou la sagesse
du Vide / Henri Michaux or the Void’s Wisdom,
Albin Michel, 1992.
3. Jean-Pierre Martin, Henri Michaux – écritures
de soi, expatriations / Henri Michaux – self-writings,
expatriations, José Corti, 1994.
4. Raymond Bellour, Henri Michaux, Gallimard,
1986.
5. Henri Michaux, « Préface », Ailleurs / Preface,
Elsewhere [1948], in OEuvres complètes, vol. II,
Gallimard, 2001.
6. Henri Michaux, Plume précédé de Lointain
intérieur / Plume preceded by Inner Remoteness
[1938], in OEuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998.
7. Françoise Susini-Anastopoulos, L’Ecriture
fragmentaire. Définitions et enjeux / Fragmentary
Writing. Definitions and Wits, Paris, PUF, 1997.
8. Henri Michaux, « Qui il est », Peintures / Who
Is He, Paintings [1939], in OEuvres complètes, vol. I,
Gallimard, 1998.
9. Henri Michaux, Qui je fus / Who I was [1927]
in OEuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998.
10. Henri Michaux, « Observations », Passages
[1950], in OEuvres complètes, vol. II, Gallimard,
2001.
11. Henri Michaux, « Comment agissent les
drogues », Connaissance par les gouffres / “How Drugs
Work”, Knowledge by Voids [1961], in OEuvres
complètes, vol. III, Gallimard, 2004.
12. Henri Michaux, Plume précédé de Lointain
intérieur / Plume preceded by Inner Remoteness
[1938], in OEuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998.
13. Henri Michaux, « Visages de jeunes filles »,
Passages / “Young Girls’ Faces”, Passages [1950], in
OEuvres complètes, vol. II, Gallimard, 2001.
14. Henri Michaux, « En pensant au phénomène
de la peinture », Passages / “Thinking about the
Phenomenon of Painting”, Passages [1950], in OEuvres
complètes, vol. II, Gallimard, 2001.
15. Henri Michaux, « Les Rêves vigiles », Façons
d’endormi, façons d’éveillé / “Dreams Awake”,
Manners of the Asleep, Manners of the Awake [1969],
in OEuvres complètes, vol. III, Gallimard, 2004.
