Unfolding Mallarme
The Development of a Poetic Art
Published on 14. November 1996
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-19-815917-9 (ISBN)
Description
Unfolding Mallarme proposes new meanings in Mallarme's poetry and seeks to promote the development of his poetic art as a successful search for linguistic and textual mastery. This development is systematically traced from Mallarme's earliest verse through to `Un coup de Des', the radically innovative poem which was about to be published in a fine-art edition at the time of his untimely death in 1898.
In a series of close readings, Roger Pearson examines Mallarme's poetic output up to and including the central `Sonnet en yx', which is discussed both in its earliest version and within the context of `Plusieurs sonnets'. These readings are followed by analyses of other major sonnets, of `Prose (pour des Esseintes)', and of `Un coup de Des' itself. The `profound calculation' on which Mallarme claimed to have based this seemingly random text is here unfolded in all its structural and semantic complexity.
In a series of close readings, Roger Pearson examines Mallarme's poetic output up to and including the central `Sonnet en yx', which is discussed both in its earliest version and within the context of `Plusieurs sonnets'. These readings are followed by analyses of other major sonnets, of `Prose (pour des Esseintes)', and of `Un coup de Des' itself. The `profound calculation' on which Mallarme claimed to have based this seemingly random text is here unfolded in all its structural and semantic complexity.
Reviews / Votes
Roger Pearson presents very thorough analyses of the major poems, taking account of diverging views and previous interpretations. * Dorothy M. Betz, The French Review, October 2000 * The clarion call of this new study of Mallarme is to read between the lines, but Roger Pearson goes behind deconstruction's blank spaces to uncover the rhythms and patterns of meaning-bearing language as it takes effect upon the receptive reader ... It offers a fine new reading of Mallarme and offers ways to respond afresh to nineteenth-century French poetry more generally. * Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol 35, no 3, 1999 * Throughout his unfolding of Mallarme's development, Pearson's prose maintains both a lightness of touch and a lucid complexity that will not only serve to guide the uninitiated but stand as a discrete homage to the figure we are only just beginning to appreciate as the least obscure of French literary legends. * Michael Temple, Birbeck College, London, MLR, vol 94, no 1, 1999 * Detailed scrutiny of individual poems... produces some excellent insights. * Anne Green, French Studies Vol.LIV No.1 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
636 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-815917-9 (9780198159179)
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Schweitzer Classification