Amyntas: North African Journals

by André Gide

Journal entries describe the authors experiences during the five years he lived in Tunis and Algiers

Genres: Travel, Algeria, French Literature, France

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Diaries and novels, such as The Immoralist (1902) and Lafcadio's Adventures (1914), of noted French writer André Gide examine alienation and the drive for individuality in an often disapproving society; he won the Nobel Prize of 1947 for literature.

André Paul Guillaume Gide authored books. From beginnings in the symbolist movement, career of Gide ranged to anticolonialism between the two World Wars.

Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes the conflict and eventual reconciliation to public view between the two sides of his personality; a straight-laced education and a narrow social moralism split apart these sides. One can see work of Gide as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints, and it gravitates around his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of full self, even to the point of owning sexual nature without betraying values at the same time. After his voyage of 1936 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same ethos informs his political activity, as his repudiation of Communism suggests.

Chinese 安德烈·纪德

Reviews

[Andrew H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though Gide mocks the French who visit Africa and only see what tourist guides show them, Amyntas is very much a French male cruising through North Africa. Gide writes as a visitor to Black Arcadia, taking in landscape as well as "Black Apollos." The title links overtly to the gay elements in Virgil's Eclogues and this fixes the eyes through which Gide looks: that of a privileged White male sampling an exotic land. The writing is hallucinatory at times -- its eroticism strangely muted (for Gide). An interesting piece of Orientalism.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written during 1896 - 1904 and various travels to Tunisia and Algeria, Gide is obviously enamoured with the people and their environment. He sees things through words so this short travelogue is interesting just to see a maestro at work.

[Ömer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Şaşırtmadı Gide gele yazma konusunda

[Ike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second finest travel book ever. And it is very short.

[Ogier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent observation of Algeria and Tunis with a lyrical enthuseasm especially for landscape and flora

[Douglas La Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful writing, but that’s about it. Snapshots of another time and place.

[Erdem Yılmaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amyntas-Kuzey Afrika Defterleri (1906)
André Gide (1869-1951, 81y 🇫🇷)
1947 Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü 🏅
Çeviren: Orçun Türkay

Kitap bir türlü akamadı, bitirme sürecim de uzadı ancak bir Fransız’ın gözüyle Cezayir’e ve çöle bakmak ilginç bir tecrübeydi..

..bir sincabın ağzında
bir gül vardı, bir eşek
ona deli gözüyle baktı.. Biskra-1896

..delilikleri bize de bulaşıyordu; daha fazla dayanamayıp kaçtık..

..adına kültür denen şeyin ne anlama geldiğini kavrayabilmek için çölün tadını çıkarmak gerek..

..uzun süre gölgeyi içerek, serinliğin tadını çıkararak, hiçbir şey düşünmeden, hiçbir şey söylemeden öylece durdum..

..yalnızca VAR OLMANIN verdiği şaşkınlıktan, yaşamanın sevincinden sarhoş olmuş bir halde..

..çakıllardan birini elime aldım; ama yerden ayrılır ayrılmaz ışıltısını, güzelliğini yitirdi..

..çölün engin boşluğu ayrıntıları sevmeyi öğretiyor insana..

[Sena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andre Gide bundan tam yüz yirmi beş yıl önce Kuzey Afrika’ya seyahat ediyor. Engin çöllerin, kapalı çarşıların, sıcak gün doğumlarına karışan kıvrak ezgilerin peşindeki Avrupalı turistleri eleştirirken aslında o da geldiği yerin bakışıyla süzüyor Tunus’u ve Cezayir’i.

Bu kısa günlüklerde olay yok, görüp hissettiklerini yarım yamalak kaydetmiş. Kokular, şarkılar, hiçliğin ortasında yetişen salkımlar.

“Arap sanatinda eksik olan sey ölüm korkusu. Ölmekten çekinmiyorlar. Oysa sanati ölüm korkusu doğurur.”

Çok zarif. Gide.

[Jay Cardam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been many years since I last read Gide and the beginning of this slim volume left me somewhat at wonder why I had found his journals and novels so moving and beautifully constructed...and this piece moved on into the end section I found the Gide I remembered.