Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon I found to be very creative and abstract. It was difficult for me to logistically understand the plot and justify/recognize what and why things were happening in the book. That said, I thought it was a fun read because of the visuals given by Aragon. It was also fairly descriptive […]
Reading Louis Aragon’s “Paris Peasant” is like therapy for me and I start to see how surrealism becomes the main theme of the text. It plays with the lightness and darkness of many situations which shows the illogicality of the narrative. Surrealism is described as “the offspring of frenzy and darkness” (65). Because there is […]
In all honesty, I have no idea what happened in this story, plot-wise, but I think that was the point? Nevertheless, I found this to be a very thought-provoking read, with several lines sticking out as significant to me. Aragon’s engagement within the surrealist movement is made apparently evident through this nonconforming novel that heavily […]
Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant is a masterful work reflecting the concept of surrealism. I frequently feel illusionary while reading the text. The narrator provokes surreal geographies by imagining and constructing the idea of “Paris”, primarily through describing two locations in the city — The Passage de L’Opéra and Buttes-Chaumont. In my opinion, this book is relatively similar […]
As a first-time reader of Proust, I did not know what to expect from Combray. As I started reading, I…
Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant was certainly an easier read for me than Proust’s Swann’s Way was. I imagine it is to do with the translation, though of course the writing style of the original author. In fact, I found myself thinking about translation a lot while reading this book. There were parts that had very interesting metaphors and jokes that I would love to see in the original language. I especially noticed this in the F.M.R. section where even the translator made a note that the original pun worked so much better. I suppose this is one of the weaknesses of translation; you can never conserve all the layers of meaning within a word or a phrase because you always have to choose one. If you can find a way to make it work with more than one meaning then you’re lucky.
Posted in Aragon, Blogs | Tagged with avant-garde, communism, gender, Louis Aragon, opinion, paris peasant, perspective, religion, Surrealism, translation
Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant was certainly an easier read for me than Proust’s Swann’s Way was. I imagine it is to do with the translation, though of course the writing style of the original author. In fact, I found myself thinking about translation a lot while reading this book. There were parts that had very interesting metaphors and jokes that I would love to see in the original language. I especially noticed this in the F.M.R. section where even the translator made a note that the original pun worked so much better. I suppose this is one of the weaknesses of translation; you can never conserve all the layers of meaning within a word or a phrase because you always have to choose one. If you can find a way to make it work with more than one meaning then you’re lucky.
Posted in Aragon, Blogs | Tagged with avant-garde, communism, gender, Louis Aragon, opinion, paris peasant, perspective, religion, Surrealism, translation
Going into this novel, all I knew of it was that it is considered one of the major works of surrealism. Knowing very little about this concept, I searched it up in the context of literature. I primarily found it to refer to the attempt of an author to merge reality and imagination. If this […]
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with Imagination, Philosophy
Hey Everyone, I found myself highlighting almost half of every page while reading Paris Peasant. All that and I still don’t understand the main concept. This is often the case for me when it comes to reading mixed-media pieces, as they do not necessarily make up a single story rather many small stories that intertwine. […]
Posted in Aragon, Blogs | Tagged with lepaysandeparis, louisaragon, paris peasant
Marcel Proust is an author who, despite the age of his works, portrays with great creativity the ever-present human condition–it is for this reason that his writing remains relevant. In his story “Combray,” readers are taken on a lucid journey not unlike a dream. The subjects ranging from childhood innocence to loves lost are made […]
