« Un vieux rat de bibliothèque grimpé à bord d’un navire »1 : Henri Michaux et la mer
An old Bookworm on board a ship”: Michaux and the Sea

Summary/Abstract: This article demonstrates the importance of the Sea in the life and the works of Henri Michaux. The representation of the Sea is subject to the “dictatorship of the Imagination”. According to his will, Michaux changes seascapes, personifies fishes and oisters, allows the soul to swim. The sea also inspires a lot of metaphors, particularly developed in the mescalinian texts. Drug becomes Ocean; the poet becomes a castaway, a drowned, then resurrected man sailing on a purified water.

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