Telling Tales – Narrative Patterns in Rimbaud’s ‘Conte’, ‘Royauté’ and ‘Aube’. ‘Une belle gloire d’artiste et de conteur emportée!’

Abstract

In this paper I seek to examine three poems from Rimbaud’s Illuminations within the context of the poet’s well‐advertised predilection for the tale and fairy tale. Thus I seek to analyse ‘Conte’, ‘Aube’ and ‘Royauté’ as examples of how the poet begins from the notion of the fairy tale as a genre and proceeds to compose prose poems, which both imitate and deviate from the norms and protocols of this parent genre. Essentially, I offer close reading of each of the texts in order to illustrate key aspects of their structure and vocabulary and in the process I highlight what I consider to be essential elements of the Rimbaldian prose poem. I have referred from time to time to leading Rimbaldian scholars whose work has also looked at this or related areas of the poet’s writing.