French Poetical Forms and Cultural Factors

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The aim of our three-year (2002 to 2004) collective research project was to describe the influence of cultural factors in the broadest sense on formal transformations in French poetry. While the general history of French poetry since the Renaissance was by no means ignored, our main focus was on modernity. on the way lyrical traditions were renewed during the XIXth century after a two hundred year "eclipse" that had largely benefitted dramatic and epic poetry.Although left free, and indeed encouraged, to adopt varied approaches, all researchers were asked to discuss the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, whose work is remarkable not only for its perfect mastery of fixed forms but also for signs of lyrical decline : dissatisfied with the resources of regular verse, he invented a new form, the "poeme en prose". His dual status as poet and critic and varied activities as well as his conflictual relations with the press were other points of interest. A little over a year into our research, an international symposium took place, inspiring papers on such themes as "crepuscular" lyrism, the genesis of the "poeme en prose", the poet's ambiguous relationship with crowds, his realistic traits in contrast with his loathing of photography, his musings on posterity and intoxication and many more. So promising was this debate that we wanted to take our research further, with the success evidenced in the addenda to this report. Upon completion of our first objective, we would know like to dwell longer and deeper on the question of ideological and aesthetical conflicts between modern poets and the press.