L’« infidélité onirique » dans L’Emploi du temps ou comment Michel Butor polémique avec les idées de Gaston Bachelard

Abstract

“ONERIC INFIDELITY” IN L’EMPLOI DU TEMPS OR HOW MICHEL BUTOR DISCUSSES GASTON BACHELARD’S IDEAS20th century philosopher Gaston Bachelard considers the combination of two elements of nature as a metaphorical “marriage,” with all its symbolic and religious meaning, including fidelity and prohibition of adultery. Water and fire, united in a moment of alchemical inspiration, form an archetypal couple of great creators, which participate in cosmogonic myths. Bachelard imagines any elemental union in the aquatic categories, which results from his theory where water is the main component of each association due to its properties of universal solvent, and the other three elements — fire, air and earth — represent only secondary components. However, some contemporary writers like Michel Butor offer a completely opposite conception, according to which the elements of nature do not respect the binary rule of the “marriage” and form triple or even quadruple unions. These monstrous mixtures described in his novel L’Emploi du temps give, indeed, a destructive effect and tend to doom the world. What would become of the notion of “oneiric fidelity,” postulated by Bachelard, in the sacrilegious universe of Butor’s novel, filled with accursed amalgamates of multiple elements?

O labirinto da memória: a investigação do tempo perdido em L’emploi du temps, de Michel Butor

“…Sobre essa mudança, alguns estudiosos da obra (comoKotowska [2012]) discutem que ela teria sido causada por Ann Bailey, a quem o jovem francês designava certa afeição, porque ela seria quem o salvaria, mas ela decidiu casar com um dele.Assim, ele deixaria de lado a investigação do crime, porque havia depositado as suas expectativas de sair da opressão da cidade nesse amor, mas fracassou. Porém, na verdade, por mais que o afeto por ela esteja presente em alguns momentos, não era, de fato, importante e tampouco foi bem desenvolvido no romance.Podemos pensar que, na verdade, L'emploi du temps é um romance à Proust.Para elaborar um breve paralelo entre Proust e Butor, podemos utilizar a discussão que GillesDeleuze (2003) faz sobre o aprendizado por meio de signos (mundanos,…”