Reprendre notre bien aux autres arts ou les rivalités mallarméennes
To Take Back What Is Ours from the Others Arts or Mallarmé’s Rivalries

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the question of rivalry understood as a creative impulse of Mallarmé’s writing in search of poetic identity conceived in terms of surpassing and domination. The discussion with different fields of art and thought and their representatives remains consistent with the intention of taking back what should belong to poetry. The analysis of Mallarmé’s selected texts focuses on the confrontation of poetry with philosophy, the aspirations of poetry to replace religious worship, the rivalry of poetry with music and the attitude of confrontation with painting. The rivalry with philosophy means taking up a philosophical gesture: through his literary experience, Mallarmé (over)comes decisive moments in the views of some philosophers. The confrontation with religion refers to poetry’s aspirations to establish itself as a modern cult. Poetry’s rivalry with music leads to a critique of verbal instrumentation and Wagnerism while approving the scriptural approach to the art of sounds. The dialogue with Impressionism leads Mallarmé to borrow pictorial technique and to reflect on the representation of reality in the face of the popularity of naturalism.

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