Poetry and Solitary Escape. From Baudelaire to Michaux Cover Image

Poésie et évasion solitaire. De Baudelaire à Michaux
Poetry and Solitary Escape. From Baudelaire to Michaux

Author(s): Alexandra Sorano
Subject(s): Aesthetics, French Literature, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Henri Michaux; Charles Baudelaire; escape; solitude; infinity;

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to conduct a comparative study of the solitary and poetic escapism from Baudelaire to Michaux. It seeks to trace the genealogy of this concept and to understand how the poets explore their suffering while pursuing the infinite. The study posits that their poetic approaches, although distinct in form and era, seek to transcend the limitations of human existence through an infinite exploration of interiority. We draw a parallel between Baudelaire’s "spleen" and Michaux’s "turbulent infinite," highlighting how each poet uses poetry as a tool for exploring the infinite. Baudelaire attempts to overcome the anguish of losing the ideal by resorting to imagination and the sublimation of suffering, while Michaux rejects all mystical transcendence and immerses himself in a brutal and hallucinatory introspection. While Baudelaire aspires to the ideal through an alchemical form of poetry, Michaux explores a torn interiority, where fragmentation becomes a form of fluid unity.

  • Issue Year: 2025
  • Issue No: 42
  • Page Range: 99-117
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: French
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