Confessions of daN Yak

DaN Yak

In 1929, Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) publishes in the Editions of Without Pareil, in two successive volumes, the adventures of its hero daN Yak: the Plan of the Needle , then Confessions of daN Yak .

The critic Fernand Divoire had convinced the editor Rene Hilsum, a large friend of Cendrars, that this second novel would obtain the Goncourt. The band advertisement had even been printed in advance, but the novel will obtain only one vote, that of Roland Dorgelès.

Undoubtedly less known than Gold (1925), Moravagine (1926) or Rum (1930), daN Yak is often regarded as the masterpiece of Cendrars novelist which, in the character of daN Yak, wanted to represent " the major transformation of the man of aujourd'hui" in a modernity which since the Great War very called in question.

In 1946, it specifies its intentions thus:

The world is my representation. I wanted in daN Yak to interiorize this fantastic notion, which is a pessimistic design; then to exteriorize it, which is an optimistic action. From where division in two parts of my novel: the first, of the outside to the inside, subject of the Plane of the Needle ; inside with the outside, object of the Confessions of daN Yak , the second. Systole, diastole: two poles of the existence; outside-in, inside-out: two times of the mechanical movement; contraction, dilation: the breathing of the universe, the principle of the life: the Man. DaN Yak, with its figures.

Editions

  • the Plan of the Needle . Paris, With Without Similar, 1929 (1st volume of the adventures of daN Yak).
  • Confessions of daN Yak . Paris, With Without Similar, 1929.
  • daN Yak . Paris, Editions of the Tower, 1946. Meeting of two preceding volumes under a new title and in a re-examined and altered version.
  • daN Yak . Paris, Denoël, coll " All around aujourd' hui" " , volume 4. Resumption of the version of 1946, presented and annotated by Claude Leroy.

Critical references

  • Philippe Bonnefis, daN Yak: Blaise Cendrars gramophone . Paris, PUF, coll " The text rêve" , 1992.
  • Michele Lathe, Blaise Cendrars. The desire of the novel (1920-1930) . Paris, Champion, 1999.

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