Symbolist Landscapes: The Place of Painting in the Poetry and Criticism of Mallarme and His Circle

Abstract

This thesis has two main aims: to give information about attitudes to painting among the French symbolist poets and critics, 1885-1895 and, from here, to examine the place of painting in the work of three of the most important poets of this period. After introductory remarks on the tradition of inter-arts comparisons in French nineteenth-century aesthetic theory and on the methodological problems raised by the study of such comparisons (together with the inadequacies of previous work on the subject for the period in question), chapter two examines Albert Aurier's definition of pictorial Symbolism in order to show that the reluctance of symbolist poets and painters alike to accept it is based upon differences in attitudes among both groups to the subject-matter of painting. These different attitudes in turn influence interpretations of pictorial form which are studied in chapter three. Particular attention is paid to those poets and critics who seek to assimilate visual values within verbal models of expression as part of a wider search for a synthesis of the arts. The thesis then goes on to study the work of three poets who apply, in their experiments with poetic language the lessons taken from a profound understanding of specific painting. Chapter four discusses Manet’s influence upon Mallarme’s poetic style through a detailed analysis of the changes made by the poet to successive versions of 'L'Apres-midi d'un faune' ; Chapter five, the influence of Seurat's divisionist technique upon the 'vers libre' of Gustave Kahn; chapter six, that of Gauguin's synthetist style upon the abstract poetic language of Alfred Jarry. Through these poets, the thesis attempts to show the extent to which pictorial reference and analogy contributed to certain fundamental developments in modern French poetry.