Martin Hurcombe
252
c’est résister au destin, imposer la volonté humaine face à l’univers
incohérent, c’est agir au lieu de subir”.
9 This confrontation therefore
becomes an act of revolt echoed in Perken’s desire in the same novel
to “laisser une cicatrice sur cette carte” (p. 60); that is, to leave the
mark of his will, a form of individual permanence, on a landscape that
would deny this.
It is when this desire is located within the Chinese revolutionary context, however, that it begins to take on the dimensions of a revolt aimed more broadly at reclaiming human dignity in the face of a
hostile natural world. The revolutionary action of Les Conquérants
therefore constitutes a revolt against the apparent stasis of the natural
world and an attempt to break free of the inertia that constantly threatens Malraux’s revolutionary characters. Thus revolutionary violence is
pitched once again against the torpor of the Asian night, but the tone
here is one, initially, of hope suggested by the sound of gun fire: “La
vie est collée au sol: […] lampes à la flamme droite dans la nuit
chaude et sans air, ombres rapides, silhouettes immobiles, phonographes, phonographes… Au loin, pourtant, des coups de fusil” (p. 253).
Moreover, in La Condition humaine, revolutionary action is not so
much a revolt against socio-political stasis as a revolt against the stillness of the world itself suggested by the revolutionaries who constitute “une immense foule [qui] animait cette nuit de jugement dernier”
(p. 25). For Hemmerlich, therefore, the dignity of Communism lies in
the hope it places in “la force humaine en lutte contre la Terre…” (p.
330, author’s emphasis).
Revolutionary action in the Asiatic novels throws Malraux’s
characters into direct confrontation with the natural world. This very
action also shapes their perception of the world, transforming it from
an indifferent force to one that appears hostile towards human activity,
denying the latter any value. In the Asiatic novels, the natural world is
a reflection of cosmic time: constant, self-sufficient, and into which
the Malrucian hero cannot be integrated. Revolutionary action constitutes a challenge to the inertia the Malrucian hero perceives in this
permanence. It is informed by an understanding of time that elevates
the value of action and therefore of engagement with the present in an
attempt to forge the future. The tension experienced by Malraux’s
characters therefore results from a conceptualization of time in which
___________________________
9 Vin Dao, André Malraux ou la quête de la fraternité (Geneva: Droz, 1991), p. 41.
252
c’est résister au destin, imposer la volonté humaine face à l’univers
incohérent, c’est agir au lieu de subir”.
9 This confrontation therefore
becomes an act of revolt echoed in Perken’s desire in the same novel
to “laisser une cicatrice sur cette carte” (p. 60); that is, to leave the
mark of his will, a form of individual permanence, on a landscape that
would deny this.
It is when this desire is located within the Chinese revolutionary context, however, that it begins to take on the dimensions of a revolt aimed more broadly at reclaiming human dignity in the face of a
hostile natural world. The revolutionary action of Les Conquérants
therefore constitutes a revolt against the apparent stasis of the natural
world and an attempt to break free of the inertia that constantly threatens Malraux’s revolutionary characters. Thus revolutionary violence is
pitched once again against the torpor of the Asian night, but the tone
here is one, initially, of hope suggested by the sound of gun fire: “La
vie est collée au sol: […] lampes à la flamme droite dans la nuit
chaude et sans air, ombres rapides, silhouettes immobiles, phonographes, phonographes… Au loin, pourtant, des coups de fusil” (p. 253).
Moreover, in La Condition humaine, revolutionary action is not so
much a revolt against socio-political stasis as a revolt against the stillness of the world itself suggested by the revolutionaries who constitute “une immense foule [qui] animait cette nuit de jugement dernier”
(p. 25). For Hemmerlich, therefore, the dignity of Communism lies in
the hope it places in “la force humaine en lutte contre la Terre…” (p.
330, author’s emphasis).
Revolutionary action in the Asiatic novels throws Malraux’s
characters into direct confrontation with the natural world. This very
action also shapes their perception of the world, transforming it from
an indifferent force to one that appears hostile towards human activity,
denying the latter any value. In the Asiatic novels, the natural world is
a reflection of cosmic time: constant, self-sufficient, and into which
the Malrucian hero cannot be integrated. Revolutionary action constitutes a challenge to the inertia the Malrucian hero perceives in this
permanence. It is informed by an understanding of time that elevates
the value of action and therefore of engagement with the present in an
attempt to forge the future. The tension experienced by Malraux’s
characters therefore results from a conceptualization of time in which
___________________________
9 Vin Dao, André Malraux ou la quête de la fraternité (Geneva: Droz, 1991), p. 41.