Urien's Anti-quest: Gide's Parting Statement to Symbolism

This article constitutes a textual analysis of André Gide's Le Voyage d'Urien. Its quest voyage on the narrative level symbolizes an artistic quest, exploring prose symbolism. The work reflects and demonstrates Gide's early fascination with the Mallarmean aesthetic, as well as his final disillusionment and rejection of it. The author's conflicting attitudes as well as his transition from acceptance to rejection are stylistically reflected in a lyric mood that progressively gives way to irony. (UF)