Saint-Exupéry visited the US in 1938, again in 1939, and from 1940 to 1943. This period was the most prolific in the French writer’s life: he published Wind, Sand and Stars in 1939 (US National Book Award for Nonfiction), Flight to Arras in 1942, The Little Prince and Letter to a Hostage in 1943. The Little Prince was mostly written in New York, notably at his friend Silvia Hamilton’s apartment and in Saint-Exupéry’s Bevin House in Asharoken (Long Island). Before he left America, the writer offered his 30,000-word manuscript of The Little Prince to Silvia Hamilton, who sold it to the Morgan Library and Museum in 1968. Saint-Exupéry removed numerous sentences and paragraphs before submitting The Little Prince to his publisher. The published version is only half the size of the Morgan Library manuscript. This presentation focuses on references to Absurdism and Consumerism in the novella. While some examples remain in the published version (the businessman counting and owning stars so he can buy more), other examples were removed by Saint-Exupéry: in folio 94, the little prince visits a store that sells all sorts of inventions, including a very expensive instrument making the sound of a small earthquake. The storekeeper resembles the voice of absurd authority, offering ready-made pleasure and suppressing true longing. The little prince, in asking for something as impossible and poetic as a device to make the moon rise, becomes a rebel, refusing to participate in absurd commerce and instead yearning for transcendent, non-utilitarian meaning.

Authors:
Bernard Montoneri, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Bernard Montoneri earned his PhD in History and his BA in Chinese from the University of Provence, Aix-Marseille I, France. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernard-montoneri-phd-5279b8242/

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https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernard-Montoneri

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https://www.facebook.com/bernard.montoneri

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