Rimbaud, Arthur - Carol de Dobay Rifelj (essay date 1987)
Carol de Dobay Rifelj (essay date 1987)
SOURCE: de Dobay Rifelj, Carol. “Rimbaud: Poetics and Politics.” In Word and Figure: The Language of Nineteenth-Century French Poetry, pp. 132-64. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
[In the following essay, de Dobay Rifelj discusses Rimbaud's innovations in reproducing the speech of the lower classes and in combining formal poetic language with vulgar and vernacular terms.]
“Rimbaud bourre ses vers de mots triviaux, écrit dans une langue très voisine de la langue parlée,” writes François Ruchon. These “mots roturiers … sont la traduction de l'état de révolte, d'ironie, de haine où il vit, dans la contrainte de Charleville et dans l'âpre ennui qui succède à ses escapades” (175). This quotation epitomizes the critical commentary on Rimbaud's linguistic innovations in verse: “revolutionary” poetic discourse equals revolt against society. This equation has been...
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