De Nerval Research Articles

Journalistic Intermediation: The Newspaper Poetics of Nerval and Baudelaire

ABSTRACT This article analyses interconnections between the newspaper press and the creative processes of Gérard de Nerval and Charles Baudelaire. From Nerval's dizzying challenge to press restrictions in Les Faux Saulniers (1850), to Baudelaire's harnessing of the cacophony of La Presse in his placement of the petits poèmes en prose, the press environment becomes a unique site of experimentation in prose. Focusing on their exploitation of the feuilleton as a means of contending with press restrictions, I demonstrate that these poets' engagement with newspapers is inseparable from their aesthetic achievements.

Anéantissement du Monde et Expérience Psychotique de Fin du Monde

Abstract An attempt to bring Husserl’s phenomenology and psychopathology closer, based on the text of § 49 of the Ideen. What is an experience of annihilation of the world? How is a world undone? We will focus on the examples of the end of the world described in the stories of Gérard de Nerval and in the patients of Wolfgang Blankenburg.

Gérard de Nerval’s Mysticism: A Mystico-Symbolic Analysis

In the seven sonnets that form the section Mysticisme included in the volume Petits Châteaux de Bohême (1852), Gérard de Nerval possibly deals for the first time with a spiritual theme in an organic and structured way. It is a poetic project that anticipates the depth of the Chimères, as well as the fascination of the Filles du feu and Aurélia. The analysis of this sonnet sequence allows us to address the foundational themes and spiritual inspirations informing Nerval’s subsequent works. Through a ‘geometric conjecture’ based on three symbols – the cross, the circle, and the triangle – this article aims at providing a personal interpretation of Mysticisme.

Světelné a barevné ladění Nervalovy Sylvie

In my paper I focus on motifs of colours and lights in a short romantic prose Sylvie by Gerard de Nerval. Using the tool of dispersion analysis I explain the ways in which these motifs influence the compositional principles of the prose. In this respect, I pay special attention to two of these principles which could be considered crucial elements for the composition of the prose: contrast and parallelism. From a functional perspective, as I demonstrate further, both principles complement each other in various segments of the text in many sophisticated ways. As a result, it should be stipulated that these compositional principles are interconnected with the set of various motifs and together with them contribute to the global dream-like atmosphere of the novel.

On the History of Russian-French Cultural Ties: A French Mark on the Life and Artwork of the Composer Edison Denisov

The subject of research in the article is the life and work of the composer Edison Denisov in the context of connections with French culture. The study of these over-the-half-century-long ties makes it possible to fill «white spots», first, in the broader subject of Russian-French cultural relations: Soviet and post Soviet contacts and influences studied on the representative material of musical art, second, in the topic of local but no less important: the role of France and its culture throughout E. Denisov’s life. The life and work of E. Denisov is a largely successful and multifaceted presentation of the French «footprint» in Russian culture in the second half of the 20th century. The material to be analyzed is multidimensional: biographical references to French art (music, literature, painting) and language; various contacts with French culture: writers, composers, musicians, ensembles and orchestras; Literary texts (B. Vian, G. Bataille) when writing music; the immersion in philosophical and humanitarian texts (R. Bart, M. Foucault, J.-P. Sartre); influence of mathematics and the structuralist method on the composer’s mastery (H. Poincaré, C. Lévi-Strauss) ; creative dialogue with works of a composer and theorist P. Bulez; the role of France in promoting Denisov’ music in the West; active educational activity of Denisov in promoting French music in Russia. A separate section of the article analyzes the influence of French composers on Denisov, and also highlights his participation in the restoration and orchestration of the unfinished opera of Claude Debussy «Rodrigo and Ximena». The article focuses only on the composer’s vocal works. The author thoroughly exqamines the works on poetry of French poets (Ch. Baudelaire, G. de Nerval, B. Vian, R. Char, H. Michaud, G. Bataille), the opera “Froth on the Daydream” based on the novel by B. Viana, the opera “Four Girls” on the play by Pablo Picasso.

Écfrasis líricas y relaciones intertextuales alrededor de la Melancolía I de Alberto Durero

Melencolia I (1514), an engraving made by the german painter Albrecht Dürer, is certainly one of the most widespread and analyzed engravings in the history of art until today. However, the pictorial field is not the only one in which this work has left its fertile seeds, also producing significant repercussions in the literary field, especially in poetry. In between the several lyrical ekphrasis that refer to this prolific renaissance engraving, we can find a trail of intertextual connections which begins with the sonnet “El desdichado” from Gérard de Nerval, followed by “The Waste Land” from T.S. Eliot, and then Jaime Gil de Biedma writes his poem “Príncipe de Aquitania, en su torre abolida”, influenced by the former; apart from other poetic references which also lead to this engraving, such as “Ciudades” by Enrique Lihn, and more recently the poem “Tres”, published by Rafael Ávila Domínguez in the sixteenth issue of the journal Apostasía, in indirect dialogue with the first two poems mentioned above. From these references, all interconnected around this picture, the materiality of Melencolia I has acomplished to expand from image to language, strunging on the pearls of an intertextual lineage that broadens the significance of the concept of melancholia around artistic creation, transmotivating the lyrical connotations from renaissance to the romantic and the modernist imagination, and from them to our present idea of melancholia.

Lʼimage de lʼAutre entre l’imaginaire et la réalité dans " Voyage en Orient" Recherche présentée par

The present research (The Image of the Other between Fiction and Reality in the Book "Journey to the East" by Gerard de Nerval) seeks to clarify the circumstances that contributed to the formation of image of the other in the literary work of Gerard de Nerval, who tried to present an atypical image of the other Egyptian which is free of the rules based on his observations during his stay in Cairo in 1843 and to clarify aspects of the social, historical, cultural and artistic life in Egypt during the first half of the nineteenth century, which witnessed the flourishing literature of the journey to the East. It is found that Nerval was able to present an objective picture of the other different from the other images contained in the literary achievement of other writers and also reached the influence of Nerval on Islam in a number of axes that were discussed in the research as well as his role in the formulation of a new speech recognizes the other and its cultural, in order to promote the desired human interaction between East and West.

“Other chimers” of Gerar de Nerval as the apophesis of literary hermeticism

The proposed article is the first attempt in Ukrainian literary criticism to analyze the mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” by Gerard de Nerval, the French artist of the XIX century. These poems were not published during his lifetime. They have, to a large extent, a draft, which, among other things, further complicates their interpretation and understanding. The proposed article consists of two parts. In the first, the authors try to prove that the sonnets of mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” are a kind of quintessence of Nerval’s hermeticism. Accordingly, any interpretation depends significantly on the creative imagination of the interpreter. The authors of the article show that “Other Chimeras” is a compressed catalog of historical events and people, their actions and words. Also, this cycle is filled with some characters of the religious and mythological heritage of mankind. In the second part of the article, the authors proposed (for the first time in domestic literary studies) their own translation of “Other Chimeras” into Ukrainian. In order for the reader to better understand the specifics of Nerval’s mature work, this translation of the sonnets is literal. In this way, we managed to reproduce as much as possible and not damage the semantic and informational level of the original, without missing a single “tangle” of reminiscences, allusions, metaphors and hints, which are so rich in these five sonnets. Thanks to this form of translation, the reader will be able to imagine the complexity and, to some extent, the inexpediency of literary translation of Nerval’s poems. Finally, the authors of the article show that the mature work and in particular mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” of the named French writer can be perceived as the starting point of literature in its modern form. Which, on the one hand, gives Nerval’s texts even greater cultural and historical significance, and on the other hand, opens up virtually limitless possibilities for its interpretation by future researchers.

Les puschts, les bardaches, les « almées… mâles » : une caricature de la femme orientale ou un autre rêve d’Orient ?

La contribution analyse quelques représentations des danseurs orientaux qui dansent habillés en femmes et cherche à répondre à la question de savoir si ces représentations forment une caricature de la femme orientale ou s'il s'agit d'un autre rêve pervers d ’Orient. La première partie présente la danseuse mâle et montre sa perception en Orient et en Europe. La seconde partie évoque la critique du comportement des danseuses mâles présente dans les relations de voyage de Jean Potocki et de Vivant Denon. Les trois dernières parties analysent trois descriptions datant des années 1840-1850, créées par Gérard de Nerval, Gustave Flaubert et Théophile Gautier. Il s'avère qu ’avec le temps, la caricature devient moins évidente qu'auparavant et les descriptions s ’esthétisent. Il n'est plus possible de ne faire que se moquer des danseuses mâles ou les condamner. Un nouveau rêve pervers d'Orient semble faire son émergence.

Düşsel ve Gerçek Arasında Doğu’da Seyahat’i Okumak

Gérard de Nerval, who created his travel writings by considering the romantic viewpoint within the framework of realism, described the various spaces, lives, people, events, etc. that he witnessed. Meanwhile, geocriticism, which is a method of literary analysis and theory that incorporates the semiotics of geographic space, tackles this issue through different methods. As for geocritical theory, while the center of a narrative discourse is the space, space semiotics examines the area in which the space and the subject’s points of existence merge. Thus, the present study focuses on the representation of Istanbul in the Journey to the Orient by Gérard de Nerval. More specifically, it interprets the data based on the theory of Orientalism by propounded by Edward W. Said in his book of the same name. As a result, it will help determine whether the binary categories are imaginary/real or foreign/familiar, while belonging to the observed, sensed, and represented space.

Oriental Landscape in the Novel “Journey to the Orient” by G. de Nerval

The presented article continues the cycle of the author’s research that reveals the specifics of the perception and artistic embodiment of various types of landscape space in French romantic prose. The relevance of the study is due to the appeal to the work of the unjustly forgotten French writer G. de Nerval, who in the novel “Journey to the Orient” was one of the first to acquaint the reader with the specifics of the eastern urban landscape, previously little known in European literature of the 19th century. Analysis of the novel shows that G. de Nerval tried to comprehend the East from different points of view: spiritual, ethnographic and literary and artistic. It is noted that the importance of describing the urban landscape for G. de Nerval testifies to his understanding of the importance of the links between nature, culture and civilization. It is noted that the floral landscape has various functions in his work: historical, ethnographic and national. As a result, it was established that G. de Nerval in his novel was able to recreate a reliable picture of the East: its oriental landscape is saturated not only with exotic descriptions of flora and fauna, enlivened by the sounds of local nature, but also has valuable author’s comments that give an idea of the national specifics of the plot.

7. Echoes of Romanticism in Violin and Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 45 by Marcel Mihalovici - Analytical Landmarks for an Upscale Interpretation

Abstract The evolution of the genre of violin and piano sonata in the Romanian composition creation in the first half of the 20th century, marked by the tendency towards getting close to the European musical phenomenon by assimilating stylistic influences of Romanticism, especially, of Enescian Romanticism, distinctly manifesting in Violin and Piano Sonata no. 2, op. 45, by Marcel Mihalovici, one of the most renowned Romanian composers settled in Paris, appreciated by the famous contemporaries, such as M.Ravel, V.d’Indy, F. Poulenc etc. Sonata (1941), preceded by a motto in the sonnet of Romantic poet Gérard de Nerval Myrtho: „Je sais pourquoi lá bas lé volcan s’est rouvert…”, impresses through the high emotional tension, metaphorically expressed by the image of the “woken” volcano, figurative suggestiveness of the musical language, architectonic innovativeness, spectacular capitalization of the violin technique in the formula of a violin-piano choir.

«Проблемне поле» французької гуманістики: досвід другої половини ХІХ століття

The material of the article is focused on the second half of the 19th century - an important and very specific stage in the development of French humanities. Specific historical and cultural traditions that positively influenced the research of the 1850s and 1870s and contributed to active cultural processes in the period of the end of the Romantic era are singled out.Emphasis is placed on the formation of theoretical and practical - a structural element of European humanities - in the logic of which organically combined research and artistic creativity. It is emphasized that its scientific potential was very strongly manifested in the French space thanks to F. d'Aubignac, F.-M. Voltaire, D. Diderot - prominent figures of national culture.During the 19th century theoretical and practical parity was established in the French humanities and found a logical continuation both in outlining and justifying the expediency of the next aesthetic and artistic movement: - realism - naturalism - symbolism - The blurring of the creative principles of romanticism by both realism (O. de Balzac) and naturalism (E. Zola) is stated, and the position of S. Baudelaire is emphasized, who on one hand criticized romanticism since the late 1840s, and on the other hand, gradually rooted the principles of the aesthetics of decadence and symbolism - the origins of which literary critics associate with his poetry - in the European cultural space. It is argued that these processes formed a problem field of French humanities, which outlined the contradictory movement of further artistic development.The article highlights the figure of T. Gautier, who continued to profess the principle of parity, positioning himself as a poet, novelist, theorist and journalist. It is emphasized that he tried to harmonize the then tendencies of French humanities around the of for art's sake, which is still perceived and evaluated by the scientific community very ambiguously. Conducted comparative analysis of interpretations of theory for and defined its aesthetic principles, as both Gauthier and his immediate entourage - S. Baudelaire, G. de Nerval, S. Leconte de Lisle - strongly denied the importance of the functionality of art, emphasizing its self-sufficiency and self-worth. It is emphasized that as a result of such a orientation, they, on the one hand, refuted a number of statements of both the first and second generation of French educators, and on the other hand, significantly strengthened the aesthetic factor in assessing the phenomenon of art in the late 19th century.The aesthetic factors used by T. Gautier and his supporters are considered. Trying to prove the value of a work of art, not the functions it can perform. In this context, the object of attention are beauty, ideal, beautiful - ugly, dream-delirium and a set of issues related to the logic of the creative process and psycho-physiological states of the artist who carries it out (inspiration, imagination, fantasy, sensuality - rationality).The special significance of the last two decades of the 19th century is noted, when, on the one hand, the scientific space includes intuitionism - the concept of H. Bergson - thus defining the emergence of a new problem field, and on the other, exhibits fauvist paintings of H. Matisse (1905) that witnessed the emergence of avant-garde.

The Romantic Basis of a Poetic Ecology in Nerval’s ‘Vers dorés’

ABSTRACTThis article aims to follow in the footsteps of French ecocriticism, while creating a double shift in its point of view: firstly, by questioning the work of the romantic writer Gérard de Nerval, who has never truly been studied through the prism of ecopoetry. Secondly, by proposing a resolutely transdisciplinary analysis at the crossroads of literature and philosophy. This study highlights the modernity of Nerval’s metaphysical conceptions of Nature but also how the poem ‘Vers dorés’ may become the manifesto of a poetic ecology through its performativity and its mobilisation of the figure of ruin.

L’Artiste et son art qui vient de loin... Gérard de Nerval et son "Voyage en Orient" (1850-1851)

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Mythological Indifference in Schelling and Nerval

Mythological Indifference in Schelling and Nerval

The Fascination of André Breton for the Arithmosophic Calculation in <i>Arcane 17</i> (The Number 1713 and Gérard de Nerval)

In surrealist researches and writings, recourse to the occult and the hermetic tradition goes hand in hand with the valorization of a set of esoteric knowledge which gathers at the same time mysticism, alchemy, arithmosophy and fictions which make an important place for mystery and the supernatural. Breton devoted himself from his first works to esoteric orientation and hermetism, consubstantially united with his poetry. We evoke the Breton text –Arcane 17, which has as its theme the arithmosophic calculation on its date of birth and that of Gerard de Nerval and, since no methodology can exhaust the meaning of this text, extremely rich in intertextual references, in images symbolic, mythical, in metalogisms, we propose to approach a methodologically open approach that gives absolute priority to the text. The presence of occultism and arithmosophy in Arcane 17, as indeed in all the other surrealist texts dealing with these domains, refers in fact to their poetic aspects. A set of Breton texts (Arcane 17, Le Surrealisme et la peinture, Perspective cavaliere, Les Entretiens) invite us to examine how this author treats esoteric thought as the possibility of a deployment of reverie and poetic inspiration. This corpus attests, certainly, Breton’s concern for the deep links between numbers, letters and events as signs to be deciphered in his spiritual approach and remains an inspiration to the most innovative sensibilities of modernity. Breton was fascinated by the number 1713 (his initials A. B. constitue, by a precise graphical game, an equivalent by transforming the figures; in the text Du poeme-objet, Breton reflects at length on the historical and scientific events related to this year) and refers explicitly several times to Pythagoreanism and Gerard de Nerval. The aim of this article is to show that the persistent vitality of an esoteric conception on the world and on the human understanding that surrealism has always proposed itself contemplates the possible actuality of some aspects of Breton’s thought, such as evidenced by a recent study by Patrick Lepetit The Esoteric Secrets of Surrealism: Origins, Magic, and Secrets Societies (2014).

La fotografia e “il disgusto della vita moderna”. Da Gérard de Nerval a Charles Baudelaire

The essay analyses the literary reactions to the invention of photography, taking into account the letters and diaries of some of the most important French writers of the 19 th century, such as Gerard de Nerval, Maxime Du Camp, Gustave Flaubert, and Charles Baudelaire.

Nerval's journeys in verse and in prose

The sonnets of Gerard de Nerval's Les chimeres (The Chimaeras) of 1854 are full of places: Greece, France, Italy, Egypt, Belgium, the Holy Land, even the underworld.1 These places (whether mentione...

Péris and Devadasis in Paris: orientalist ballet as poetic translation

One summer’s day in Paris, Theophile Gautier sat among a select group of writers and journalists (including his close friend Gerard de Nerval), invited to attend an intimate and titillating spectac...