Michaux between France and Belgium

Abstract Michaux is perhaps best known as an explorer of the self, and his indefatigable probing of the outer reaches of consciousness has attracted critical attention since the 1940s. But little attention has been paid to his articulation of the self in relation to his double literary and national identities. In consequence, his works tend to be read as though they unproblematically find their place in either the French or the Belgian tradition, when they do not. As strong as his desire to belong in France was Michaux’s belief in his ineradicable Belgianness, and the conflicted sense of his double identity as a ‘Belge, de Paris’ haunts his works. Because of his apparent rejection of Belgium, and perhaps also for fear of marginalizing Michaux by emphasizing his peripheral origins, the issue has tended to be overlooked. However, it is not because he became a self-declared Parisian that he did not share the predicament of those non-metropolitan francophones whose works until recently had to find their place within the French tradition in order to be received without bias both in France and at home. Although he shared many of the aesthetic concerns of his French contemporaries, Michaux remained self-consciously aware of his cultural difference long after he was naturalized French.