 | The Crisis of French Symbolism Subjects: French poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Symbolism (Literary movement) -- France; Mallarmé Stéphane 1842-1898 -- Criticism and interpretation; Verlaine Paul 1844-1896 -- Criticism and interpretation; Baudelaire Charles 1821-1867 -- Cr; Challenging traditional histories of the nineteenth-century French lyric, Laurence Porter maintains that from 1851 to 1875 Symbolism constituted neither a movement nor a system, but rather represented a crisis of confidence in the powers of poetry as a communicative act. The Crisis of French Symbolism offers a provocative reinterpretation of the four acknowledged masters of Symbolist poetry: Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé. Laurence Porter is Professor of Romance and Classical Languages at Michigan State University. |
