A Comparative Study of Technical Expression and Self-Consciousness in Modernist Novel: Taking Nadja and The Soul Mountain as Examples

Abstract

This paper focuses on two twentieth-century writers, André Breton and Gao Xingjian, comparing their early lives. Through textual analysis, it contrasts their respective representative works, Nadja by André Breton and The Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian. It concludes that both writers share similarities in three aspects: their opposition to literary tradition, their creation of the figure of the wanderer, and their construction within literature of an Other that reflects the self. Furthermore, the article examines the divergence in their literary attitudes towards the modern world, suggesting that underlying social factors—particularly pressures from the political environment—may account for these differences. This article investigates how each goes beyond typical writing methods and narrative purposes. The novels shape the image of a traveler through fragmentary happenings, while the author's own spiritual universe is represented through the presence of the Other in the works.