“Imaginary lives” of “literary lunatics” at Nerval and Queneau

We compare the treatment of literary madmen in Nerval’s Visionaries with that in Queneau’s Children of Cray, from the point of view of the interest they take in the lives of madmen. The concepts of “literary lunatics” and “imaginary lives” allow us to understand that Nerval and Queneau took an interest in the gestures and opinions of marginal people to rediscover a hidden aspect of their personality and critically reconsider the society in which they lived.