Andre Malraux: The Farfelu as Expression of the Feminine and the Erotic

Be it in the light fantastic of his early work, or the classic tragedy of La Condition humaine, or sensuous poetry of the Antimemoires, Andre Malraux uses farfelu and related discourses to represent, not the simple misogyny of his critics, but a complex image of the symbolism of the sexes and of their interrelations - notably as regards the erotic, maternal, artistic and other aspects of the feminine. As Domnica Radulescu shows, in phenomenological (Bachelardian) terms, farfelu discourse is part of Malraux’s creation through art of a true anti-destiny, a cosmic eroticism which recursively forms the primary material of the poetic imagination.