We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Transgressions et conformités poétiques dans les sonnets de Nerval et de Baudelaire.
- Authors
Gubbins, Sarah
- Abstract
The tension between transgression and conformity plays an important role in the transformation of French poetic language which takes place in the sonnets of Nerval and Baudelaire. The sonnet form both underlines these pressures and illustrates the exceptional level of evocativeness to which they can give rise. Nerval and Baudelaire exploit the richness of the sonnet while, at the same time, questioning the limits of this form. Though Baudelaire's 'sonnets libertins'shocked his contemporaries, the traditional division between octave and sestet is essential to his evocation of the tensions and conflicts of modern life. Nerval's sonnets are more regular in terms of form than those of Baudelaire, and the concision of the sonnet led him to use symbols in a new way. However, the almost infinite chain of associations in his sonnets sheds doubt on the ability of poetry to arrive at 'truth', perhaps even problematising the very nature of that concept. Like all important sonneteers before them, the contribution of Nerval and Baudelaire to sonnet history involved a balance between perfecting existing practice and modifying it to suit their poetic needs. These poets were willing to modify both the form and the accepted thematic scope of the sonnet in order to achieve both evocativeness and depth.
- Subjects
CONFORMITY in literature; FRENCH poetry; FRENCH literature; SONNET; NERVAL, Gerard de, 1808-1855; BAUDELAIRE, Charles, 1821-1867
- Publication
Synergies Royaume-Uni et Irlande, 2013, Issue 6, p141
- ISSN
1961-9464
- Publication type
Article