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D. Evans, Rhythm, Illusion and the Poetic Idea

D. Evans, Rhythm, Illusion and the Poetic Idea

Publié le par Nicolas Wanlin

David Evans, Rhythm, Illusion and the PoeticIdea. Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé

Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, collection « Faux titre »,2004, 355 p.

70 €

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Rhythm, Illusion and the Poetic Idea explores the concept of rhythm and its central yet problematic role indefining modern French poetry. Forging innovative lines of inquiry linking thedetailed analysis of poetic form to the evolution of fundamental aestheticprinciples, David Evans offers extensive new readings of the literary andcritical writings of the three major poets at the centre of France's mostimportant poetic revolution. The volume is of interest to all students andreaders of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Mallarmé, since here is presented for thefirst time a thorough comparative study of developments in each writer's poeticform and theory, focusing on the themes of illusion, deception and the musicalmetaphor. The book is also intended to stimulate wider critical debate on theinterpretation of metrical verse, prose poetry and vers libre, andoffers original analytical methods which facilitate the study of poetic form.The author proposes a radical shift in our understanding of the role andmechanisms of poetic rhythm, suggesting that its very resistance to definitionand fixity provides a conveniently opaque veil over the difficulties ofdefining poetry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

David Evans isLecturer in French at the University of St Andrews.