Tristan Corbiere and the Poetics of Irony (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

245 Pages·2006·1.39 MB·English

by  Katherine Lunn-Rockliffe

OXFORD MODERN LANGUAGES
AND LITERATURE MONOGRAPHS
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Tristan Corbie`re
and the Poetics
of Irony
KATHERINE LUNN-ROCKLIFFE
CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD
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Lunn-Rockliffe,Katherine,1974-
TristanCorbie`reandthepoeticsofirony/KatherineLunn-Rockliffe.
p.cm.—(Oxfordmodernlanguagesandliteraturemonographs)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978–0–19–929588–3(alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0–19–929588–3(alk.paper)
1. Corbie`re,Tristan,1845–1875—Criticismandinterpretation. 2. Ironyin
literature. I. Title. II. Series.
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Acknowledgements
I  like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board for
fundingthedoctoralresearchonwhichthisbookisbased,andHertford
College, Oxford, for a Baring Senior Scholarship which assisted the
preparation of thethesis. I am indebted to St Anne’sCollege, Oxford,
first for awarding me a Fulford Junior Research Fellowship, which
enabledmetocompletethebook,andsecondlyforcontinuingtosupport
mewhileIheldaBritishAcademyPostdoctoralResearchFellowship,in
thecourseofwhichthefinalmanuscriptwasdelivered.Iamextremely
grateful to Jim Hiddleston for supervising the original project and
for offering continued guidance. I would also like to thank Malcolm
Bowie,PatrickMcGuinness,AnneHolmes,andRogerPensomfortheir
valuable support and feedback, and Rachel Killick and Steve Murphy
for commenting on earlier versions. I owe much to Lisa Downing, Ed
Welch,RuthCruickshank,andMirandaGillfortheirdiscussionsandI
thankthemfortheirconstantencouragement.Specialthanksaredueto
Nicola Thomas, Wanda Wyporska, Sophie Ratcliffe, Ian Sheehy, and
SophieLunn-Rockliffe.Thisbookisdedicatedtomyparents.
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Contents
NoteonReferences viii
Introduction 1
1. Voice-DefyingLyricism 11
2. DescribingBrittany:MultiplePerspectives 52
3. PortraitsoftheArtist:IronizingIrony 93
4. ‘Thought-Feeling’:TheLanguageofSensation 131
5. ‘Rondelspouraprès’:CircularSuggestion 171
Conclusion 216
Appendix:Anearlydraftof‘VederNapolipoimori’ 220
Bibliography 221
Index 231
Note on References
I have used the Pléiade edition of Corbière’s Œuvres complètes, ed.
Pierre-OlivierWalzer,inCharlesCros,TristanCorbière:Œuvrescomplètes
(Paris:Gallimard,1970).QuotationsfrompoemsinLesAmoursjaunes
aresimplyfollowedbylinenumbersgiveninthetext.Wherereference
is made to other material in the Pléiade edition, it is identified by the
abbreviationOC.AllitalicsinthequotationsareCorbière’sown.
Introduction
TstudyofTristanCorbie`re’spoetryaimstoshowhowhisinnovative
use of irony contributed to the general revolution in poetic language
that marked the 1870s. Corbie`re’s idiosyncratic blend of oral diction,
quotation, and self-contradiction is often overlooked in mainstream
literary histories, but it is at the root of what Edmund Wilson calls
the‘conversational-ironic’branchofSymbolism,¹influencingLaforgue
in the 1880s, and Pound and Eliot in the twentieth century. This
tradition is often overshadowed by the parallel current of ‘serious-
aesthetic’poetryexemplifiedbyMallarme´,²butironycancreateeffects
asobliqueandindeterminateasthemorerarefiedformsof‘purepoetry’.
Like his contemporaries such as Rimbaud, who are so often classed as
Symbolists, Corbie`re is strictly speaking a precursor of the Symbolist
movement proper. His single published volume, Les Amours jaunes,
appeared in 1873, well before the movement gathered force in the
1880s,andwaswritteninisolationfromotheroriginators.Heisoften
seen asthearchetypal po`etemaudit, amisunderstoodoutsiderinrevolt
against conventions, and his brief but colourful life certainly fuels this
myth.However,hisoriginalityliesinthewayhesubvertsthecliche´sof
the po`ete maudit and inscribes marginality in the very language of his
verse,whichHuysmansdescribesas‘a`peinefranc¸ais’.³
Irony lies at the heart of Corbie`re’s aesthetic of defamiliarization
and operates at all levels from verbal wit to cosmic pessimism. During
the nineteenth century, irony emerged as a hallmark of modernity,
and in the process became far more than a mere trope. In its many
guises it remains a defining feature of Western culture, so Corbie`re’s
use of irony to explore the spiritual void and the crisis-ridden sub-
ject still seems profoundly modern at the start of the twenty-first
century.Henonethelesscontinuestoperplexreaders,bearingoutEzra
¹ EdmundWilson,Axel’sCastle(NewYork:CharlesScribner’sSons,1948),96.
² Ibid. ³ J.-K.Huysmans,A`rebours,Folio(Paris:Gallimard,1977),306.