Table Of ContentMallarmé’s Sunset
Poetry at the End of Time
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Chairman
Professor Colin davis, Royal Holloway, University of london
Professor Malcolm Cook, University of Exeter (French)
Professor Robin Fiddian, Wadham College, Oxford (Spanish)
Professor anne Fuchs, University of Warwick (german)
Professor Paul garner, University of leeds (Spanish)
Professor andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex (English)
Professor Marian Hobson Jeanneret,
Queen Mary University of london (French)
Professor Catriona Kelly, new College, Oxford (Russian)
Professor Martin Mclaughlin, Magdalen College, Oxford (Italian)
Professor Martin Maiden, Trinity College, Oxford (linguistics)
Professor Peter Matthews, St John’s College, Cambridge (linguistics)
dr Stephen Parkinson, linacre College, Oxford (Portuguese)
Professor Suzanne Raitt, William and Mary College, Virginia (English)
Professor Ritchie Robertson, The Queen’s College, Oxford (german)
Professor david Shepherd, Keele University (Russian)
Professor Michael Sheringham, all Souls College, Oxford (French)
Professor alison Sinclair, Clare College, Cambridge (Spanish)
Professor david Treece, King’s College london (Portuguese)
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dr graham nelson
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www.legendabooks.com
Mallarmé’s Sunset
Poetry at the End of Time
❖
Barnaby norman
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
2014
First published 2014
Published by the
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
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Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
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© Modern Humanities Research Association and Taylor & Francis 2014
ISBN 978-1-909662-29-2(hbk)
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Contents
❖
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Depuis Mallarmé 1
1 Hegel: The End of Art 7
The Aesthetics as Art History 7
Poetry and Interiority (The End of Art) 11
2 Hérodiade and the Conception of the ‘Œuvre pure’ 18
Hérodiade 18
Letters (The Great Ecstasy of Stéphane Mallarmé) 29
Igitur 37
3 ‘Le Drame solaire’: Sonnet allégorique de lui-même 48
The ‘Sonnet nul’ 50
The ‘Nothing-ing of Nothing’ 55
The End of Art 60
4 L’Espace littéraire 66
‘L’Espace nocturne’ 67
From Orpheus to ‘L’Absence de livre’ 83
5 La Dissémination 97
The End of the Book: ‘La fin du livre e(s)t le commencement de l’écriture’ 97
The Sessions 109
Crisis 121
Afterword: Into the Zone 139
Bibliography 141
Index 146
For my wife Anna
Un astre, en vérité
ACKnoWLeDGeMents
❖
This book has benefited from the encouragement and insight of many people.
Without the sustained support of family, academic mentors and friends, the project
would never have got to this point, and looking back from here it is with unreserved
gratitude that I would like to acknowledge this support. I thank my wife, Anna,
who was there in Paris when the seed was planted and has done so much to help it
bear fruit; Mike and Di Norman — it is rare that you get this kind of opportunity
to say how much you appreciate your parents; my brother, Sam, and my godmother,
Anna Allport — who have both made life significantly easier. The study itself has
benefited enormously from my supervisor Hector Kollias’s exacting reading, and
from the encouragement of Patrick ffrench who helped me to shape the project in
the early stages. Shortcomings are of course my own responsibility. When it came
to converting the manuscript for publication, I was greatly aided by the analyses
and comments of my doctoral examiners, Colin Davis and Nikolaj Lübecker, and in
practical matters by Graham Nelson at Legenda. Finally, I thank four friends with
whom I have been able to discuss this project: Henry Dicks, John Mckeane, David
O’Hara, and Greg Kerr.
b.n., June 2014
