POÉTIQUE DE LA FORME BRÈVE DANS EN SABOTS D’ANDRÉ BAILLON
POETICS OF THE SHORT SHAPE IN ANDRÉ BAILLON'S "THE SABOTS"

Summary/Abstract: My paper (partially) tackles an atypical autobiographical novel written by the Belgian author André Baillon, En Sabots, which is not yet permeated by his great obsessions such as madness, prostitution or love-related anxieties. It actually consists in several short stories about the social and cultural realities of Campine and about identity search. A painful alternative is to be found here: saving oneself from alienation by becoming a monk or a writer. We may discover a poetics of the fragmented discourse and of the detail (with disconnected anecdotes), in a noun-dominated style (the core of the sentence is not the verb but only one noun). This concise style illustrates the author’s metaphysical concept about the force of the simple word which conveys perception and locks the moment in eternity. A game of mirrors in 103 short forms (ana), biographemes which make up a harmonious ensemble, with humour, rhythm and balance.

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