Fatemeh in Papier de Liberte “ On Nadja and Surrealism ”

It is great pleasure and honor  to have one of our special visitors  of Papier, Fatemeh as  our new Guest-Writer. Fatemeh  who describe herself by Emily Dickinson’s word as:

I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us — don't tell! They'd banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!

is the owner of fabulous weblog’s: http://aroomofonesown1.blogspot.com/
and the visual one: http://aroomofonesownvisual.blogspot.com/
She believes that  “A woman must have money and a room of her own. –“
***************************************************************************************************
On Nadja by Andre Breton

By Fatemeh

 
Another great novel in Papier de liberte and my favorite literary school, surrealism :)
Let me share some part of a book named ‘Literary Schools’ by M.Haghighi.Ph.D, seventh chapter, page 247-250, Surrealism:
“… for the surrealists, the essential elements of both dream and the child’s world was the free imagination. The imagination gives vitality and a sense of unlimited possibility to both, and it is what is most threatened-if not destroyed by the adult, waking life.”
“…surrealists want to go “beyond” realism (normal perception of the outer world) deep into the inner world of the unconscious mind. They believed that the world of the unconscious mind-as expressed by fantasies and dreams has a reality superior to that of the phenomenal world.”
Well, I quote these two paragraph to show that Andre Breton him self as a surrealist author write these sentences with unconscious mind:
“A game: say something. Close your eyes and say something. Anything, a number, a name …..
You know, that's how I talk to myself when I'm alone, I tell myself all kinds of stories. And not only silly stories: actually, I live this way altogether.”
Or this one : “Perhaps my life is nothing but an image of this kind; perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps under the illusion that I am exploring, doomed to try and learn what I simply should recognize, learning a mere fraction of what I have forgotten.”
He wants to show the power of imagination and its superiority to that of the phenomenal world; as Manoochehr Haghighi mention in his book: “The conformity modern life imposes on man practically does not let man seek refuge in the world his imagination creates for him.”
Oh, another point! I want to tell you about an interesting discovery of mine which I found in this novel. You know what?
The novel starts with the question "Who am I?" and the name of protagonist is ‘Nadja’ (whose is named so “because in Russian it’s the beginning of the word hope, and because it’s only the beginning,” but which might also evoke the Spanish ‘Nadie,’ which means ‘No one’).
Who am I? … Only the beginning of the word hope … Spanish meaning No one …
Who am I? Who are you Nadja? I am no one with just the beginning of the word hope! And you know about the rest of the story. You can see the roots of absurdity here; you know surrealism is the base of Absurdity!
Finally, I love this sentence: "You could never see this star as I do. You don't understand: It's like the heart of a heartless flower."
I think it’s a hidden message of André Breton to his readers.
 
Fatemeh