Stéphane Mallarmé
Encyclopedia
Stéphane Mallarmé (18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French
poet
and critic
. He was a major French symbolist
poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dada
ism, Surrealism
, and Futurism
.
. He worked as an English teacher and spent much of his life in relative poverty; but was famed for his salons
, occasional gatherings of intellectuals at his house on the rue de Rome for discussions of poetry, art, philosophy. The group became known as les Mardistes, because they met on Tuesdays (in French, mardi), and through it Mallarmé exerted considerable influence on the work of a generation of writers. For many years, those sessions, where Mallarmé held court as judge, jester, and king, were considered the heart of Paris intellectual life. Regular visitors included W.B. Yeats
, Rainer Maria Rilke
, Paul Valéry
, Stefan George
, Paul Verlaine
, and many others.
On 10 August 1863, he married Maria Christina Gerhard. Their daughter, (Stéphanie Françoise) Geneviève Mallarmé, was born on 19 November 1864. Mallarmé died in Valvins (present-day Vulaines-sur-Seine
) September 9, 1898.
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Mallarmé's earlier work owes a great deal to the style of Charles Baudelaire
. His later fin de siècle
style, on the other hand, anticipates many of the fusions between poetry
and the other arts
that were to blossom in the next century. Most of this later work explored the relationship between content and form, between the text and the arrangement of words and spaces on the page. This is particularly evident in his last major poem, Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard
('A roll of the dice will never abolish chance') of 1897.
Some consider Mallarmé one of the French poets most difficult to translate into English. The difficulty is due in part to the complex, multilayered nature of much of his work, but also to the important role that the sound of the words, rather than their meaning, plays in his poetry. When recited in French, his poems allow alternative meanings which are not evident on reading the work on the page. For example, Mallarmé's Sonnet en '-yx opens with the phrase ses purs ongles ('her pure nails'), whose first syllables when spoken aloud sound very similar to the words c'est pur son ('it's pure sound'). Indeed, the 'pure sound
' aspect of his poetry has been the subject of musical analysis and has inspired musical compositions. These phonetic ambiguities
are very difficult to reproduce in a translation which must be faithful to the meaning of the words.
has been the inspiration for several musical pieces, notably Claude Debussy
's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
(1894), a free interpretation of Mallarmé's poem L'après-midi d'un faune
(1876), which creates powerful impressions by the use of striking but isolated phrases. Maurice Ravel
set Mallarmé's poetry to music in Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913). Other composers to use his poetry in song include Darius Milhaud
(Chansons bas de Stéphane Mallarmé, 1917) and Pierre Boulez
(Pli selon pli
, 1957–62).
Man Ray
's last film, entitled Les Mystères du Château de Dé (The Mystery of the Chateau of Dice) (1929), was greatly influenced by Mallarmé's work, prominently featuring the line "A roll of the dice will never abolish chance".
Mallarmé is referred to extensively in the latter section of Joris-Karl Huysmans
' À rebours
, where Des Esseintes describes his fervour-infused enthusiasm for the poet: "These were Mallarmé's masterpieces and also ranked among the masterpieces of prose poetry, for they combined a style so magnificently that in itself it was as soothing as a melancholy incantation, an intoxicating melody, with irresistibly suggestive thoughts, the soul-throbs of a sensitive artist whose quivering nerves vibrate with an intensity that fills you with a painful ecstasy." [p. 198, Robert Baldick
translation]
The critic and translator Barbara Johnson
has emphasized Mallarmé's influence on twentieth-century French criticism and theory: "It was largely by learning the lesson of Mallarmé that critics like Roland Barthes
came to speak of 'the death of the author' in the making of literature. Rather than seeing the text as the emanation of an individual author's intentions, structuralists
and deconstructors
followed the paths and patterns of the linguistic signifier
, paying new attention to syntax, spacing, intertextuality
, sound, semantics, etymology, and even individual letters. The theoretical styles of Jacques Derrida
, Julia Kristeva
, and especially Jacques Lacan
also owe a great deal to Mallarmé's 'critical poem.'"
, with his purposeful use of blank space and careful placement of words on the page, allowing multiple non-linear readings of the text. This becomes very apparent in his work Un coup de dés.
On the publishing of "Un Coup de Dés" and its mishaps after the death of Mallarmé, consult the notes and commentary of Bertrand Marchal for his edition of the complete works of Mallarmé, Volume 1, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard 1998. To delve more deeply, "Igitur, Divigations, Un Coup de Dés," edited by Bertrand Marchal with a preface by Yves Bonnefoy, nfr Poésie/Gallimard
Prior to 2004, "Un Coup de Dés" was never published in the typography and format conceived by Mallarmé. In 2004, 90 copies on vellum of a new edition were published by Michel Pierson et Ptyx. This edition reconstructs the typography originally designed by Mallarmé for the projected Vollard edition in 1897 and which was abandoned after the sudden death of the author in 1898. All the pages are printed in the format (38 cm by 28 cm) and in the typography chosen by the author. The reconstruction has been made from the proofs which are kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale of France, taking into account the written corrections and wishes of Mallarmé and correcting certain errors on the part of the printers Firmin-Didot.
A copy of this new edition can be consulted in the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand. Copies have been acquired by the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques-Doucet and University of California - Irvine, as well as by private collectors. A copy has been placed in the Museum Stéphane Mallarmé at Vulaines-sur-Seine, Valvins, where Mallarmé lived and died and where, according to Paul Valéry, he made his final corrections on the proofs prior to the projected printing of the poem.
The poet and visual artist Marcel Broodthaers
created a purely graphical version of Un coup de Dés
, using Mallarmé's typographical layout but with the words replaced by black bars.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
. He was a major French symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ism, Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, and Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
.
Biography
Stéphane Mallarmé was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He worked as an English teacher and spent much of his life in relative poverty; but was famed for his salons
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
, occasional gatherings of intellectuals at his house on the rue de Rome for discussions of poetry, art, philosophy. The group became known as les Mardistes, because they met on Tuesdays (in French, mardi), and through it Mallarmé exerted considerable influence on the work of a generation of writers. For many years, those sessions, where Mallarmé held court as judge, jester, and king, were considered the heart of Paris intellectual life. Regular visitors included W.B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, Paul Valéry
Paul Valéry
Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath...
, Stefan George
Stefan George
Stefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, and many others.
On 10 August 1863, he married Maria Christina Gerhard. Their daughter, (Stéphanie Françoise) Geneviève Mallarmé, was born on 19 November 1864. Mallarmé died in Valvins (present-day Vulaines-sur-Seine
Vulaines-sur-Seine
Vulaines-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Twin towns:It is twinned with the village of Barby, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom.-External links:* * *...
) September 9, 1898.
Style
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
. His later fin de siècle
Fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...
style, on the other hand, anticipates many of the fusions between poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and the other arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
that were to blossom in the next century. Most of this later work explored the relationship between content and form, between the text and the arrangement of words and spaces on the page. This is particularly evident in his last major poem, Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard
Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard (Mallarmé)
Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard is a poem by the French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé...
('A roll of the dice will never abolish chance') of 1897.
Some consider Mallarmé one of the French poets most difficult to translate into English. The difficulty is due in part to the complex, multilayered nature of much of his work, but also to the important role that the sound of the words, rather than their meaning, plays in his poetry. When recited in French, his poems allow alternative meanings which are not evident on reading the work on the page. For example, Mallarmé's Sonnet en '-yx opens with the phrase ses purs ongles ('her pure nails'), whose first syllables when spoken aloud sound very similar to the words c'est pur son ('it's pure sound'). Indeed, the 'pure sound
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
' aspect of his poetry has been the subject of musical analysis and has inspired musical compositions. These phonetic ambiguities
Homophony
In music, homophony is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords. This is distinct from polyphony, in which parts move with rhythmic independence, and monophony, in which all parts move in parallel rhythm and pitch. A homophonic...
are very difficult to reproduce in a translation which must be faithful to the meaning of the words.
General poetry
Mallarmé's poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
has been the inspiration for several musical pieces, notably Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune , commonly known by its English title Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is a symphonic poem for orchestra by Claude Debussy, approximately 10 minutes in duration...
(1894), a free interpretation of Mallarmé's poem L'après-midi d'un faune
Afternoon of a Faun (poem)
L'après-midi d'un faune is a poem by the French author Stéphane Mallarmé. It is his best-known work and a landmark in the history of symbolism in French literature...
(1876), which creates powerful impressions by the use of striking but isolated phrases. Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
set Mallarmé's poetry to music in Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913). Other composers to use his poetry in song include Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
(Chansons bas de Stéphane Mallarmé, 1917) and Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
(Pli selon pli
Pli selon pli
Pli selon pli is a piece of classical music by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is for solo soprano and orchestra, and is based on the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé...
, 1957–62).
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
's last film, entitled Les Mystères du Château de Dé (The Mystery of the Chateau of Dice) (1929), was greatly influenced by Mallarmé's work, prominently featuring the line "A roll of the dice will never abolish chance".
Mallarmé is referred to extensively in the latter section of Joris-Karl Huysmans
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
' À rebours
À rebours
À rebours is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans...
, where Des Esseintes describes his fervour-infused enthusiasm for the poet: "These were Mallarmé's masterpieces and also ranked among the masterpieces of prose poetry, for they combined a style so magnificently that in itself it was as soothing as a melancholy incantation, an intoxicating melody, with irresistibly suggestive thoughts, the soul-throbs of a sensitive artist whose quivering nerves vibrate with an intensity that fills you with a painful ecstasy." [p. 198, Robert Baldick
Robert Baldick
Robert Baldick was a British scholar of French literature, writer, joint editor of the Penguin Classics series with Betty Radice and a well-known translator. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford....
translation]
The critic and translator Barbara Johnson
Barbara Johnson
Barbara Johnson was an American literary critic and translator. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University...
has emphasized Mallarmé's influence on twentieth-century French criticism and theory: "It was largely by learning the lesson of Mallarmé that critics like Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
came to speak of 'the death of the author' in the making of literature. Rather than seeing the text as the emanation of an individual author's intentions, structuralists
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
and deconstructors
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
followed the paths and patterns of the linguistic signifier
Sign (linguistics)
There are many models of the linguistic sign . A classic model is the one by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides : the signifier , the "shape" of a word, its phonic component, i.e...
, paying new attention to syntax, spacing, intertextuality
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...
, sound, semantics, etymology, and even individual letters. The theoretical styles of Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
, and especially Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
also owe a great deal to Mallarmé's 'critical poem.'"
Un Coup de Dés
It has been suggested by some that much of Mallarmé's work influenced the conception of hypertextHypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
, with his purposeful use of blank space and careful placement of words on the page, allowing multiple non-linear readings of the text. This becomes very apparent in his work Un coup de dés.
On the publishing of "Un Coup de Dés" and its mishaps after the death of Mallarmé, consult the notes and commentary of Bertrand Marchal for his edition of the complete works of Mallarmé, Volume 1, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard 1998. To delve more deeply, "Igitur, Divigations, Un Coup de Dés," edited by Bertrand Marchal with a preface by Yves Bonnefoy, nfr Poésie/Gallimard
Prior to 2004, "Un Coup de Dés" was never published in the typography and format conceived by Mallarmé. In 2004, 90 copies on vellum of a new edition were published by Michel Pierson et Ptyx. This edition reconstructs the typography originally designed by Mallarmé for the projected Vollard edition in 1897 and which was abandoned after the sudden death of the author in 1898. All the pages are printed in the format (38 cm by 28 cm) and in the typography chosen by the author. The reconstruction has been made from the proofs which are kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale of France, taking into account the written corrections and wishes of Mallarmé and correcting certain errors on the part of the printers Firmin-Didot.
A copy of this new edition can be consulted in the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand. Copies have been acquired by the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques-Doucet and University of California - Irvine, as well as by private collectors. A copy has been placed in the Museum Stéphane Mallarmé at Vulaines-sur-Seine, Valvins, where Mallarmé lived and died and where, according to Paul Valéry, he made his final corrections on the proofs prior to the projected printing of the poem.
The poet and visual artist Marcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works....
created a purely graphical version of Un coup de Dés
Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard (Broodthaers)
Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard is an artist's book by Marcel Broodthaers published November 1969 in Antwerp...
, using Mallarmé's typographical layout but with the words replaced by black bars.
Works
- In 1875, he translated Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's The RavenThe Raven"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...
into French, while Impressionist painter Édouard ManetÉdouard ManetÉdouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
illustrated it. - L'après-midi d'un fauneAfternoon of a Faun (poem)L'après-midi d'un faune is a poem by the French author Stéphane Mallarmé. It is his best-known work and a landmark in the history of symbolism in French literature...
, 1876 - Les Mots anglais, 1878
- Les Dieux antiques, 1879
- Divagations, 1897
- Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard, 1897
- Poésies, 1899 (posthumous)
Sources
Hendrik Lücke: Mallarmé - Debussy. Eine vergleichende Studie zur Kunstanschauung am Beispiel von „L'Après-midi d'un Faune“. (= Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 4). Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8300-1685-9.Further Reading
- Badiou, AlainAlain BadiouAlain Badiou is a French philosopher, professor at European Graduate School, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure . Along with Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek, Badiou is a prominent figure in an anti-postmodern strand of continental philosophy...
. "A Poetic Dialectic: Labîd ben Rabi'a and Mallarmé" and "Philosophy of the Fawn". In Handbook of Inaesthetics. Trans. Alberto ToscanoAlberto ToscanoAlberto Toscano is a cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher and translator best known to the English-speaking world for his translations of the work of Alain Badiou, including Badiou’s The Century and Logics of Worlds...
. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. 46-56, 122-41. - Bersani, LeoLeo BersaniLeo Bersani is an American literary theorist and Professor Emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992.-Bibliography:...
. The Death of Stéphane Mallarmé. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. - Blanchot, MauriceMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
. The Space of Literature. Trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. - Blanchot, MauriceMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
. "The Absence of the Book". In The Infinite Conversation. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. 422-436. - Blanchot, MauriceMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
. "The Myth of Mallarmé". In The Work of Fire. Trans. Charlotte Mandell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. 26-42. - Blanchot, MauriceMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
. "The Silence of Mallarmé", "Mallarmé's Silence", and "Mallarmé and the Novel". In Faux Pas. Trans. Charlotte Mandell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. 99-106, 107-111, 165-171. - Blanchot, MauriceMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
. "The Book to Come". In The Book to Come. Trans. Charlotte Mandell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. 224-244. - Bowie, MalcolmMalcolm BowieMalcolm McNaughtan Bowie FBA was a British academic, and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge from 2002 to 2006. An acclaimed scholar of French literature, Bowie wrote several books on Marcel Proust....
. Mallarmé and the Art of Being Difficult. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. - Cohn, Robert Greer. Toward the Poems of Mallarmé. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
- Cohn, Robert Greer. Mallarmé’s Masterwork: New Findings. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966. [A commentary on "Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard".]
- Cohn, Robert Greer. Mallarmé, Igitur. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
- Cohn, Robert Greer. Mallarmé’s Prose Poems: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Cohn, Robert Greer. Mallarmé’s Divagations: A Guide and Commentary. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
- Cohn, Robert Greer, ed. Mallarmé in the Twentieth Century. Associate ed. Gerard Gillespie. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998.
- Derrida, JacquesJacques DerridaJacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
. Dissemination. Trans. Barbara JohnsonBarbara JohnsonBarbara Johnson was an American literary critic and translator. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University...
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. - Jameson, FredricFredric JamesonFredric Jameson is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends—he once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure of organized capitalism...
. "Mallarmé Materialist". In The Modernist Papers. London: Verso, 2007. 313-41. - Johnson, BarbaraBarbara JohnsonBarbara Johnson was an American literary critic and translator. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University...
. "Crise de Prose". In Défigurations du langage poétique: La seconde révolution baudelairienne. Paris: Flammarion, 1979. 161-211. - Johnson, BarbaraBarbara JohnsonBarbara Johnson was an American literary critic and translator. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University...
. "Allegory's Trip-Tease: 'The White Waterlily'" and "Poetry and Performative Language: Mallarmé and Austin". In The Critical Difference: Essays in the Contemporary Rhetoric of Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. 13-20, 52-66. - Johnson, BarbaraBarbara JohnsonBarbara Johnson was an American literary critic and translator. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University...
. "Erasing Panama: Mallarmé and the Text of History", "Les Fleurs du Mal Larmé: Some Reflections of Intertextuality", and "Mallarmé as Mother". In A World of Difference. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. 57-67, 116-33, 137-43. - Kristeva, JuliaJulia KristevaJulia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
. La révolution du langue poétique: l’avant-garde à la fin du XIXe siècle: Lautréamont et Mallarmé. Paris: Seuil, 1974. [Note: Kristeva's commentaries on Mallarmé are largely omitted in the abridged English translation: Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. Margaret Waller, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.] - Lloyd, Rosemary. Mallarmé: The Poet and his Circle. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
- Millan, Gordon. A Throw of the Dice: The Life of Stephane Mallarme. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994.
- Richard, Jean-PierreJean-Pierre RichardJean-Pierre Richard, is a French writer and literary critic.- Biography :Jean-Pierre Richard began his advanced studies at the École normale supérieure in the rue d'Ulm in 1941, passed the "agrégation" in literature in 1945, and got his doctoral degree in 1962...
. L’univers imaginaire de Mallarmé. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1961. - Robb, Graham. Unlocking Mallarmé. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
- Sartre, Jean-PaulJean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
. Mallarmé, or the Poet of Nothingness. Trans. Ernest Sturm. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988. - Scherer, Jacques. Le "Livre" de Mallarmé: Premieres recherches sur des documents inedits. Paris: Gallimard, 1957.
External links
- Mallarme.net contains texts of most of the poems and commentary. (French)
- Artist & composer Daniel Dutton's illustrated version of "The Faun" Stéphane Mallarmé, his work in audio version
