Strands of utopia : spaces of poetic work in twentieth-century France / Michael G. Kelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelly, Michael G. (Michael Gerard)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

French poetry.

Utopias in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 269 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Legenda, 2008.

Summary:

The Poetic is an abiding yet elusive qualification within the discursive system of twentieth-century French literature. No longer amenable to formal assignment, its recurrences delimit a shifting, multi-layered practice of artistic and intellectual (self-) invention. This Study attempts to outline certain durable properties of that practice by confronting it with the complex theoretical and spatial metaphor of utopia. Drawing, in particular, upon the oeuvres of Victor Segalen (1878-1919), Rene Daumal (1908-44) and Yves Bonnefoy (b. 1923), it traces poetic work – work done in support of poetic difference - along the social, physical and textual axes of what is argued to be a sustained field. This study Encourages revised understanding of both the poetic and the utopian in the modern French literary context.

Legenda is a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing. Titles range from medieval texts to contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern humanities.

Contents:

Part I Lieu Commun Peotic Foundation and the Limit of Community

1 The Common Object Of Poetic Work 32

2 Pragmatics of the Common Object 46

3 Between Order and Origin: Victor Segalen 60

4 Silent Community and Revolutionary Speech: Rene Daumal 76

5 Poetic Foundation in the Opening of Language: Yves Bonnefoy 92

Part II Haut Lieu (Dis)Placing the Scene of Poetic Experience

6 Experience and Scene of Experience 110

7 Poetic Placements 122

8 Segalen outside the Forbidden City 134

9 Daumal on the Slope of Mont Analogue 145

10 Bonnefoy in the Arriere-pays 157

Part III Non-Lieu Formative Transformational Attributes of Poetic Textuality

11 Eemegence of the poetic Text as Non-lieu 172

12 Ambivalence of a Spatial Logic in the Non-lieu 185

13 Segalen: Metamorphoses of the Non-lieu 199

14 Daumal: The Lieu of the Non and the Imaginary of a Poetic Affirmation 216

15 Bonnefoy: The Poetic Non-lieu and Practice of Hope 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [257]-265) and index.

ISBN:

9781905981144

1905981147

OCLC:

170954962