Death as Cataclysm or Catharsis: Yves Bonnefoy’s Douve

Abstract

One of Bonnefoy’s best known poetic works, the 1953 Du mouvement et de l’immobilité de Douve, is also one of his most elusive, a complex piece presenting subtle juxtapositions of metaphysical inquiry, linguistic experimentation, and artistic innovation. Of the many engaging aspects of this substantial poem, the motif of the human body represents a central tenet. Intricately related to Bonnefoy’s subtle notion of présence—the interiorization of external reality though the infinite dynamics of art—the human body emerges as a living incarnation of that exquisite, unnamable state to which Bonnefoy’s poetry aspires. The systems continually at work in a biological organism—and its constant movement towards the definitive gesture of death—present the writer’s holistic view of the complex human form.