Le(s) corps
The Body/ies
The self is perceived at Henri Michaux, Benjamin Fondane and Ilarie Voronca in an effort of totalization or in an opposite effort, of fragmentation. We also notice a certain anxiety of the spirit, a lucidity that refuses to accept the data of the life such as they are generally accepted by everyone. It is the lucidity – which does not mean only critical consciousness or self-criticism on the artistic level ––that generates a continuous exploration of the mind and space. By comparing the universal space to his own interior space, Michaux indirectly produces a relationship of similarity between his body and the body of humanity. As for Voronca and Fondane, the body is compared to the spirit – or canceled by it – in a symbolic relationship. The body is another universe to be explored and it reveals to be more interesting because it is able to provide an infinite variation of sensations, from the deepest pain to the absolute happiness, throughout the mystification of those sensations. The sought precision of the details always gives a great impression of falseness and it represents one of the major achievement of Michaux. The body is also seen alternatively within its real and its artificial frame. The register of the reality is present mainly by the intensity of pain. The register of the artificial is present by the drug. Between these two registers one notices the presence of a third, which crosses the real and the artificial at the same time: the dream.
Keywords: the self, Henri Michaux, Benjamin Fondane, Ilarie Voronca, the body, happiness, mystification
- Henri Michaux, Les rêves de la jambe [1923],
Oeuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998. - Henri Michaux, Mes rêves d’enfant [1925],
Oeuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998, p. 63. - Jean Burgos, «Michaux ou le plaisir du signe»,
dans Pour une poétique de l’imaginaire, Ed. du Seuil,
1982 - Henri Michaux, «Apparitions», La vie dans les
plis [1949] Oeuvres complètes, vol. II, Gallimard,
2001 - Raymond Bellour, Henri Michaux, Gallimard,
1986, p. 57. - Jérôme Laurent, «Corps fragile» dans Passages et
langages de Henri Michaux, textes réunis et présentés
par Jean-Claude Mathieu et Michel Collot, José
Corti 1987. - Henri Michaux, «Qui il est», Peintures [1939],
Oeuvres complètes, vol. I, Gallimard, 1998. - Henri Michaux, «Distractions de malade», La
Nuit remue [1935], Oeuvres complètes, vol. I,
Gallimard, 1998. - Ilarie Voronca, Ulysse dans la cité [1933], Le
Temps des Cerises, Les Amis de Roger Vailland, 1999.
