Nerval ou la chimère du moi

In Nerval’s work, the identity of the subject is never secure or given. The “I” fluctuates in time, sucked in by a vortex of images. It deteriorates before losing itself, lucidly putting the dispossession of the self to the test. This is why the creation of a narrative about the past does not lead him to practice autobiography in a traditional way—but instead causes him to undertake an impersonal excavation that constitutes a significant expansion of the self into something mythical and cosmic in scope.