Baudelaire: Libert, Libertinage and Modernity Author(s): Beryl Schlossman Source: SubStance, Vol. 22, No.

1, Issue 70 (1993), pp. 67-80 Published by: University of Wisconsin Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3684731 . Accessed: 08/07/2013 12:01
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of Wisconsin Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to SubStance.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

and Modernity Baudelaire: Libertinage, LibertY,

Schlossman Beryl

Politics and Poetics Baudelaire's "LEMODERN from INFRENCH LITERATURE STYLE" ranges between of and the transition of Poe to the Modernism Beckett, reading of in located Walter thesetwophenomena be critique might Benjamin's that a doublearticulation work constitutes literary modernity. Benjamin's allowshimtomovebetween criticism" ideology, "revolutionary (political theRussianRevolution, art)and a Marx,Brecht, Lukacs, revolutionary works and distanced their ofProust whodeliberately and Valery, critique two Theintersection between aesthetics from concerns. Benjamin's political Thisconfields offocus canbe located in hisframework of"modernity." arisesat thecrossroads of history, economics, sociology, ceptualframe and arcades Theirpaths, urbanarchitecture and politics. passageways, ofpoetry. filtered into theidiom Benjamin's mapwhathe callscapitalism, of in oeuvre of be seen his of can best analysis the poetic reading modernity Baudelaire. Thepoetappears ofBaudelaire. text with an image Benjamin's begins in theguiseof a bohemian described by Marxas a "conrevolutionary, In spirateurde profession." two articlespublishedin 1850,1these a revolutionaries werecharacterized mystification, provocation, byanger, forimprovising taste forplayingdevil's advocate,and a penchant and Auguste Baudelaire between drawsa parallel strategies. Benjamin consideroftheday,who enjoyed thearchetypal Blanqui, revolutionary In 1886, in Die NeueZeit, able prestige and spentmanyyearsin prison. aras black-gloved Marxand Engelsdescribed professional conspirators tists ofrevolution. wrote: They
with share andthey arethealchemists oftherevolution completely They ofideasand their theearlier alchemists their confusion limitation/stubinBenjamin, bornness ofobsessive ideas.(Quoted 519)2

of account Marx'sopinionof the conspirators is echoedin Benjamin's le g6ndral Baudelaire's limited intuitions ("Il fautallerfusiller political
Aupick!")3
1993 SubStance #70,

67

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

68

Schlossman Beryl

to includeBaudelaire's However,Benjamin opens up Marx'scomment storehouseof allegory:"WiththisBaudelaire'simage presents enigmatic itselfas if automatically: of allegoryin theone, theenigmatic bric-A-brac the mystery-mongering in the other"(Benjamin, of the conspirator 519). Where did Benjaminlearn how enigmas and secretsarticulate the corbetweenpoetry and politics? The connection respondences mayhave been an overdetermined but in theGerman it is certain that he discovered it one, as well as in trans-Romantic French GermanmourningTrauerspiel poetry. and Baudelairean of of became the his plays poetics interpretation ground and the two of that inform modes his allegory, represent allegory writing: baroque and modern. Baudelaire's Revolutionary Rhetoric: Contradictions and Eroticism Maismoi, disVive la ett dupe! Je je nesuispasdupe! je n'aijamais ... Vive comme la Destruction! laMort!-Baudelaire, Vive jedirais: Rdvolution! OC II,961. with"vive la mort!"is Baudelaire'sequationof "vive la revolution!" "Non echoed in his declared desire to be both victimand executioner: mais je ne hairais pas d'etre seulementje serais heureuxd'etre victime, bourreau"(961). The Sadian noirceur two calof his remarks springsfrom the culated rhetorical excesses: the oxymoron"long live death" petrifies and contemplates it as a deathmask; theavowed dispoliticalenterprise course on "democratisation" is subvertedby a vocabulary of violent eroticism.Happiness and hatred-the conditional "je serais heureux" paralleledby the quasi-classical"je ne hairaispas"-are applied to "victime" and "bourreau"-the roles played by a subject of revolution. Baudelaireuses "victim"/ "executioner" to deny the ideologicalpremises of revolutionarypolitics, and to reduce the content of ideology to the arteroticizedsubjectivities. These subjectivities are interchangeable; a for as sees revolution ist/bohemian/conspirator/flaneur stage allegorical The remarks representation. quoted above may be Baudelaire'smostexand theyoccur beyond the bordersof plicit discussion of revolution, in French a Pauvre racist dossier entitled Belgique! territory, cannotbe separated fromthe Baudelaire's evocationsof revolution eroticismthat informs them. Throughhappiness and unhappiness asthequestionof sociatedwithplayingtheroleof"victime" and "bourreau," la revolution!" dis: Vive the that infiltrates statement "Je jouissance begins:
SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

69

of The voice proclaiming "je ne suis pas dupe!" announcesthattherhetoric revolution cannot be separated fromRomantic fantasies of mastery. Baudelaire's poetry subverts this fantasywith a vocabulary of erotic violence. "L'Heautontimorouminos": FromConspiratorial to Irony Rhetoric one of the Fleursdu Mal, displays the "L'HWautontimorouminos," and theatrical ofpairingimages. negating powerofBaudelaire'stechnique Polarized, parallel, or one to one, the significations generatedby comIn ofrhetorical "correspondences." parisonsand oppositionsare theeffect three Baudelaire'spoetry, often (or more) bringstogether correspondence in the "divinesymphonie" elements to whichthepoem alludes:
L'WHautontimorouminos J.G.F. I sanscolre tefrapperai Je Et sanshaine, comme unboucher, lerocher! Comme Moi'se Etje ferai detapaupiere, Pourabreuver mon Sahara, leseauxdela souffrance. Jaillir Mondisir gonfl6 d'esperance Surtespleurs salisnagera Comme unvaisseau lelarge, quiprend Et dansmon coeur sozleront qu'ils Teschers retentiront sanglots untambour Comme quibatla charge! Ne suis-je accord pasunfaux Dans la divine symphonie, 4 la vorace Ironie Grace etquimemord? Qui mesecoue la criarde! Elleestdansmavoix, mon cepoison noir! C'esttout sang, suislesinistre miroir Je la se Oi migere regarde!

1993 SubStance #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

70
suisla plaie etlecouteau! Je lesoufflet etlajoue! le suis

Schlossman Beryl

suislesmembres etla roue, Je Et la victime etlebourreau! suisdemon coeur levampire Je Et quinepeuvent plussourire!

-- Undeces grands abandonnds Aurire iternel condamnes, As in the sonnet "Correspondances," the "comme" of Baudelaire's similesplays a decisiverolein themysterious "L'H~autontimorouminos." The rhetorical and stylistic and corresponelementsof simile,metaphor, dence engage thereaderwiththeequally mysterious of thenarrafigures tivevoice,theinterlocutor, ofirony, theshrew,and the thepersonification vampire. The poem's ostensiblesubjectis suffering, sadistic evil, irony,and eroticism. te is The echoed the fourth line,"Etje ferai..." "Je frapperai..." by in thefuture two anticipated acts of violencewill be perpetrated againsta "tu" whose identity constitutes one ofthegaps thatchallenges Baudelaire's readers.The "tu" neitherappears nor speaks withinthe poem; only its The sobs can be heard resonating in theheartof thenarrator. anticipated readerknowsonly thattheobjectis desiredby thespeakerand thatsome sentimental value has been assigned to its "sanglots."This sentimental value is undercutby the completedisappearanceof the object afterthe evocationof "her"sobs,imaginedand interiorized by thespeaker. In a letter a projected to Victor Mars,Baudelairedescribed Epilogueto This desDeux Mondes. a seriesof theFleurs du Mal publishedin the Revue so closelythat projectedEpilogue resembles"L'Heautontimorouminos" have seen it as the source of the poem.4In the paraphrased some critics "tu" is characterized the as "une dame." Througha series of Epilogue, "Si vous adjectives,the narratorascribes to her a certainconsistency: voulez me plaire et rajeunir les desirs,soyez cruelle, libertine, menteuse, vanishes in this et voleuse" (OC 985). However, explicitness crapuleuse, The eroticobject,"tu," disappears fromthe "L'Heautontimorouminos." of "her" tearsand imaginedsobs. The sadisticimage at the moment poem ofthespeaker'sdesire"gonfl4 d'esperance"sailingaway on thetearsofhis in an image of the objectas a "rocher" as "Le includes object, Voyage," the withits waterand a "paupibre"withthe "pleurssales" thatintoxicate narrator's heart.The imageexpands:hertearshave becomean ocean,and somewherein between subjectand object,the "rocher"of the violated

SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

71

Thesubject "mon Sahara." intimate hasbecome the narrator's desert, object is "like a butcher," a sailing hisobject's "like "like Moses," imagined ship;" sobsare"likea drum." thepersonification When thefragile oftheobject evaporates, presence ofl'Ironie thespeaker's to becomes thealibifor challenge correspondance; thepowerthat douturns an intimate sadismintomasochism produces of et the self. suis" two rather than The rhetoric "victime is one. of "Je bling in bourreau" that to this Pauvre offers its negative power appears Belgique! Romantic and explodes itfrom insidethe poem;it infiltrates subjectivity The conspiratorial heart"whereits "dear sobs" resound. "intoxicated the thediscourse ofinfiltration, is allegorized as Irony, whoturns rhetoric, initial like rolesaround. Thepassive virtual has faded out; object weeping his blood,thevoiceof thespeaking infiltrated is literally by the subject voracious vampire:
est lacriarde! Elle dans ma voix, mon tout cepoison noir! C'est sang, lesinistre miroir suis Je seregarde. OQi lamigere

blackvampire, her Baudelaire's turns thetableson thenarrator: Irony, tortures the of "tu" "chers Romanticism and the desired replace sanglots" withthedarkimage("le sinistre eternel." ofthespeaker's "rire miroir") The anticipated future of tensevanishes (intothepast,intothefuture or into thin air the of with scenarios that the sadistic prophecy, fantasy) is supposedto explain. withthefirst lineof thefourth irony Beginning to a present tensethatintensifies themysterious stanza,theverbsshift union ofopposites intheoxymorons ofthepenultimate stanza. Thanks to theallegorical thespeaker whosays"je suis"describes goddessofIrony, himself as a series ofimages that ofviolent include both andobject subject acts.Theseoppositions in theparadox culminate ofthespeaking subject whois notonly from theinside-voice, blood,andimage-but possessed is also the vampire of the who consumes his own heart. The beating is heart rendered as the ofthe before the sobs, speaker's object's beating drum when the invades therhythm ofthepoeminthepenultimate stanza, in"self-tormenter" of thetitle turns on himself theviolence originally
flicted on the"tu."

In thefinal is no longer alibi.Likethe thenarrator's stanza, l'Ironie virtual she seemsto havebeenincorporated intothespeaker's beloved, heart. His blood is blackpoison;the "sinistre herdark miroir" reflects in and et use darkness image. Although poems "Spleen Ideal" light many

SubStance 1993 #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

72

Schlossman Beryl

to formparadoxical pairs and oxymorons, thereis no lightin "L'H6autontimorouminos." As in "Le Coucher du Soleil Romantique,""La nuit irresistible etablitson empire" (OC 149). The similesof a projectedand fantasticvoyage of desire disappear into the "sinistremiroir"where violence is turnedagainst the speaker and internalized as an agent of In thedeceptivesymmetry destruction. of thisstanza,theoppositionsbetween torturer and torturedharbor secret complicitiesof rhymeand Violence infiltrates the presenttense and the harmonyof the rhythm. divinesymphony. "L'Heautontimoroumenos" indicates the basis of Baudelaire's dismissalof revolution of it as a strucand his understanding provocative violence.Thislimits to a of tureofreciprocal relationship political ideology victimand executioner. The "faux accord" the speaker evokes marksa kind of conspiracyagainst romantic discourse;the black violenceof alofcorrespona moment ofdissonancein thedivineharmony legoryinserts dence. Voluptuous Revolutionaries In his Notes sur Les Liaisons dangereuses, Baudelaire writes: "la a et6 faite thetoneof R6volution des 68). (OC II, par Although voluptueux" the Notesis somewhatenigmatic, Baudelairehad an avowed "sympathie They may have pour le livre."Who are the voluptuousrevolutionaries? in common with the of something images opposites that permeate Baudelaire's "Vive la Revolution!"These images are inscribedwith the The in Baudelaireanscenariosofjouissance. thatare central transgressions as an enigmatic therolesexchanged, construct identities, reciprocal voluptd contractbetween violence, suffering, and desire. "L'H6autontimorouIt at its center. menos" circlesaround the inarticulable knotof jouissance illustrates theexplosionnamed in the "Coucherdu Soleil Romantique"an attack on the sentimentalviews of pleasure avowed by some of Baudelaire'spredecessors and contemporaries. The speaker in Baudelaire's "Epilogue" demands that his mistress please him by being cruel,false,and so on. He imploresher: "soyez... libertine!" would have no relationto "Vive la (OC 985) This imperative associatedwith it were not the for Rdvolution!" voluptuousrevolutionaries the late Les Liaisonsdangereuses. Both inside and outside of literature, dimenand adds a revolutionary political eighteenth century specifically

SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

73

sion to thereligiousand philosophicalconnections thatwere made in the seventeenth between and libertinage liberted. century In 1789:Les Embl'mes writes: de la raison, JeanStarobinski le monde etqui veulent finissant ... pourceuxqui le condamnent l'abolir, activele visage du mal:c'est d'unevolontt~ prend 1'expression qui refuse ment le bien universel. (14) The noirceur that stylizes the blacknessof nightwith pre-Baudelairean in the and evil finds itsmostprivileged eroticism, suffering representatives Vicomtede Valmontand Mozart-DaPonte'sDon Giovanni.It is thisnoirceurof eroticism ifBenjamin'sparallel thatreturns in Baudelaire'spoetry; betweenBlanqui and Baudelaireis pursued,thereturn to thebaroque and its violentmysteries for Baudelaire's mightbe seen as a compensation absenceofrevolutionary consciousness. The reciprocal identification of victim takesplace on and executioner thestagewhereValmont and Don Giovanniallegorizeunlimited jouissance and ironicdistance frommorality and religion.In a world of Venetian thewomen who are theirvictims masks,carnivalsand eroticized illusion, have interiorized and combinedthe evil of transgression, the delightsof seduction,and theimagesof an idealized object.This deadly combination of beauty,corruption and itsfunereal and an idealized love consequences, be described as the the blood of "L'Heautontimoroumight poisonnoir, menos." Its sublimity belongsto thebaroque,resurrected by LesFleursdu Mal.

"Correspondances":Valmontand Don Giovanni In Mozart-DaPonte's"Don Giovanni," in 1787, written and performed the blacknessof libertinage in libert6 is overwritten with a revolutionary several scenes. The mostexplicit of thesemoments of moral and political subversionoccursin thefinale of ActI. Interrupting thenocturnal noirceur thatcolors much of the opera's atmosphere, Don Giovanni's illuminated ballroomparallelsthe finalfestive scene and the flamesthatwill end the e preparata opera. When theTrioof Masks arrivesin the "sala illuminata per un granfestadi ballo," Don Giovannigreetsthem: E aperto a tutti quanti, la liberth! Viva toall (Itisopen live Long liberty!)

SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

74

Schlossman Beryl

fervor does not enterexplicitly into Don Giovanni's Revolutionary la "Viva His ball recreates a Venetiancarnivalatexclamation, libert!,,"5 ofintrigue themaskedfigures and disguise,illusionand artifice; mosphere are free to conceal theiridentity. undertones enterDon Revolutionary Giovanni'sexclamation when thescore returns thethanks to it following in uttered the Trio The form of Masks. exclamation is taken ensemble by up the Its grandeurinterrupts by fivevoices,accompaniedby theorchestra. minuetthatwas heard while Don Giovanni'sservant, Leporello, gave his master'sinstructions to theTrio.Followingthesweepingchoraleof "Viva la libertA!" will be played again. theminuet The exclamation of "Viva la libertA!" thecourseof boththe interrupts music and the narrative unlikemanyothereleaccountof thefestivities; mentsof thetext, itseems to originate withtheMozart-DaPontescore.Its since the anacoluthon, repetition by theensembleappears as a mysterious the other members freedom thatDon Giovanniincarnates is contested by of theensemble. In a ballroomfilledwithpeasants,Leporellois theonlynon-aristocrat to sing: "Viva la libertA!" His identification withhis masterlends him an in contrast aura of libertinage, to theTrio(Donna Elvira,Donn'Anna,Don Ottavio),who wear disguisesin thename of the law. A deliberate pause takes carnival license out of contextand into the revolutionary period, Don Giovannisuddenwhereitemergeslikea symptom: "Viva la libertA!" to thelateeighteenth ly holds up a mirror century. Baudelaire's Modernism-Revolt againstRomanticism of and its forms novel to turnlibertinage Laclos used the epistolary Its pages unfoldin boudoirs seductionintoa secrettheater of conspiracy. of a thelabyrinth of croisements, filledwithmirrors; a network theyform BaudelaireanParis of Modernism.The strangefigureof the voluptuous noteson Laclos who emergesfromBaudelaire'saphoristic revolutionary his entry onto before in black,AugusteBlanqui, seems to evoke thefigure thescene ofhistory. In otherappearances,Baudelairewears theblack gloves of aesthetic in order to maintaina distancefromthe personal and political artifice sentiment(reactionary, revolutionary, progressive,etc.) displayed by Their like Lamartine and writingwas Baudelaire's inHugo. figures of heritanceand his intimateadversary;for this reason, his invention

SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

75

distancedfrom Modernismwas bothessentially Romantic and irreducibly Romanticism. How did Baudelaire's"modernstyle"becomea voyageto theends of of the a transgression The new form constitutes Romanticism? of writing fallen on In has the of Romanticism. Baudelaire's terms, parameters Night Romantic label of "L'Artpour l'Art"is a pointofentry; Sun. The historical it is impossibleto conceiveof the Baudelaireanenterprise withoutit. On of theotherhand, "ArtforArt'sSake" cannotaccountforthebanishment new the new of and and the for sensibility, interiority memory image, relation lifeand art. betweensensationand style, and turnsit into an Baudelaire takes the Romanticideal of infinity artificial formof the sublime-an excess of language or style.The new from and textualdecorumsentiment "modernstyle"detachedwriting rhetorical the etiquette of appropriate and the coherence, subjectmatter, form of this the Romantic anti-allegorical, organic Although excess symbol. led Baudelairebeforea courtof law, theviolenceof his workhas moreto do withits form thanwithobscenity. to thisexand contemporary criticism, According history, philology, in of Romanticism marks a plosive interruption style. turning point literary it remains criticism, Although Modernism is centralto contemporary elusive and perhapsindefinable. Its effects, however,have been feltfrom thelatter halfofthenineteenth thetwentieth and century, century through in such writers as Joyce, Rilke. and Proust, Pound,Woolf, The polemics against Baudelaire indicate that the adversaries of Modernism had a clearer ofwhatwas at stakethansome of understanding the poet's defenders.During Baudelaire's trial in 1857, the prosecutor made thefollowing remarks: Charles Baudelaire II ne rel&ve pas Aune&cole. que de luin'appartient Anu.II sa theorie, mettre Sonprincipe, c'est de tout de tout peindre, meme. ilaura, fouillera la nature la humaine danssesreplis lesplusintimes; pour ... illa grossira afin destons etsaisissants outre rendre, mesure, vigoureux 11 de creer la sensation. fait la contrepartie dire, ainsi, peut-il l'impression,
du classique,du convenu.(OC I, 1206)

an acwas utteredas an accusation,it offers Althoughthis description curate account of Baudelaire's aesthetic in his own terms, includingthe the use of bold color "mise A nu," the ambitionto "paint everything," and ofexcessforthepurposeofcreating tones,thedeployment impression sensation (ratherthan the didacticdeclarationand sentiment associated in an withearliergenerations). of Romantic the "convenu" codes, Beyond

SubStance 1993 #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

76

Schlossman Beryl

arena of representation thatBenjamin recognizedas baroque,theseterms characterize thefounding ofModernism. aesthetic of the "convenu," Preciselybecause of the Modernisttransgression some of Baudelaire's defenders taskof denyingthe took on the ill-fated new aesthetic. du mal to the ofLesFleurs assimilate writing Theyattempted to themode of thesymbol(versusallegory), the by highlighting image of literatureas organic, idyllic, and rooted in nature. Edouard Thierry folBaudelaireas a gardener "la nature portrayed cultivating meurtri.re," in on of literature: the heels the nature more conventional lowing principle La nature a donne &chantillons ses plus riches pacifique depuis longtemps la du lieua realise unEdende l'enfer oui ... Le maitre ... Dansuntemps littrature a raconte au public de la viede boheme lesmoeurs indiscr&te ... il estvenuaprbs Atravers les amusants direAsontour conteurs l'idylle (OC 1187-88) champs. of It is difficult to recognizeBaudelaireand his poeticsin a valorization a in a for of Hell or the nature, nostalgia pastoralidyll, triumph redemption in of heavenlyinnocence. defensestagesa denial of Modernism Thierry's thereactionary of the terminology adversary. In morecontemporary Baudelaire'sliterary explosionstill judgments, In resonatesas subversive, obscene,and conspiratorial. a tonethatrecalls in Baudelaire's defense,ErichAuerbach the justificatory articleswritten new and consummate defendshis "entirely Digstyle."In "The Aesthetic of the'Fleursdu Mal,"' he writes thatBaudelaire'spoems nity baseandcontemptible ofthe a mixture agea newpoetic style: ... gavethis was unprecewhich with thesublime, a symbolic use ofrealistic horror, other alsoofthe but dented... Theform, not ofmodem literary only poetry thinkable is scarcely of thecentury that has elapsedsincethen, genres du Mal."(225) without "LesFleurs to in lightof his attempt Auerbach'sstatement is particularly significant apologize forthe horrorin Baudelaire's poems. His apologeticimpulse of the in his readingof theworkas a straightforward rendering originates poet's personality.

Crossroadsand Arcades Baudelaire's poem, "Le Coucher du Soleil Romantique,"acknowThe idyllicmode of the ledges the Modernist explosionof Romanticism.

SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

77

firstline is immediatelyundercutby the conspiratorial irony and the brusqueslang of "la vie moderne"in thesecond line: Le Coucher duSoleil Romantique est tout beau ilseleve, QueleSoleil quand frais Comme une nous son disant explosion bonjour! - Bienheureux avec amour quipeut celui-l4 Saluer son coucher reve! plus glorieux qu'un ... J'ai me souviens! vutout, source, sillon, Je fleur, Sepfamer . .. sous son oeil comme uncoeur quipalpite -Couronsvers ilest courons tard, l'horizon, vite,
Pourattraper au moins unoblique rayon!

Mais envain leDieu je poursuis quiseretire; Nuit son itablit L'irresistible empire, etpleine defrissons; Noire, humide, funeste odeur detombeau dans lestinebres Une nage, Etmon aubord dumarecage, pied peureux froisse, Descrapauds etde limagons. imprivus froids The Romantic celebration ofnatureis no longerpossible;theexplosion thatunderminesthebeautyof the sun sounds more like modernity. The world of Les Fleursdu Mal is the empireof "l'irrsistibleNuit"-"Noire, et pleine de frissons"-allegorized in thepoem. This sonhumide,funeste which was to serve for as the net, supposed epilogue Asselineau'sMilanges tiresd'une petitebibliothbque romantique, may be read as the epilogue to Romantic the narrator's ravishment includesa visionofstransubjectivity: detached natural source,sillon") in the guise of the gely objects("fleur, Removedfrom their Romantic coherence quiveringheartof Romanticism. as elements of an idyllic Nature, these objects play new roles, as The exclamationof memoryinscribesthis hieroglyphsof subjectivity. of Modernism. poem with the aesthetic Transfigured by the visionof "Je me souviens!" thefragmented and distancedobjectshave becomeimages in a new style. In thepreface to Le Spleen deParis, Baudelairegives an accountofstyle that takes lyricism out of the domain of sentimentality and into a new idiom of "poeticprose,"locatedwithintheframe of themoderncity.The

SubStance 1993 #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

78

BerylSchlossman

sublimethatunfoldin LesFleurs du Mal becomes poeticsof theModernist a modernarchitecture ofform and content: de nousquin'a pas... reve' le miracle d'uneprose Quelestcelui poetique, musicale sans rythme et sansrime, assez soupleet assez heurt6e pour auxmouvements auxondulations dela reverie, del'ame, s'adapter lyriques auxsoubresauts de la conscience? (OC 275-276) The new idiom is miraculous, from thestructure musical,and inseparable of "correspondance" of theFleurs du mal nearthebeginning thatoriginates In the and plays an important oeuvre. role throughout Baudelaire'spoetic chartheverb"s'adapter"linksthetriadofoxymorons poet's commentary, of form and ethical faculties to the acterizing literary spiritual, imaginative, content. Baudelairemaintains thedistancebetweenthetwo triadsin order of art:"s'adapter"cannotbe assimilatedto naturalor to affirm theartifice that Like it maintains the entities organicexpression. "correspondance," differentiated The "fondu" of these mysteriously mingletogether. opaque, of thesymbol entities cannotbe assimilatedto theorganic"translucence" thatColeridge evokes in his polemic against allegory.Like "correspondance," the "fondu"evoked at key momentsin Modernist poeticsmain- cast, of tainsaesthetic artifice. It prefigures the vocabulary "Prligung" Benjamin'sdiscusimprint, coinage,stamp,and seal thatcharacterizes sions of allegory and some of Lacan's polemics for a psychoanalysis beyondthepositivist bodyofpsychology. in Like Flaubertwriting Baudelaireplaces his project MadameBovary, the frame of "la vie moderne, ou plut6td'unevie moderne"and criticizes dismissesit as "le the traditional of the novel. He provocatively "subject" fil interminable d'une intriguesuperflue"(OC 275). The crossingsof modernlifeare as decisiveforLe Spleen deParisas theywere forLesFleurs du Mal; theyrun parallel to the allegoricalpaintingof Rouen in Madame ofCarthage, thatsets thestagefortherecreation Paris,and so on,in Bovary laterworks.Baudelairewrites: de du croisement de la frequentation desvilles enormes, C'estsurtout c'est cetidealobsidant. leurs innombrables (OC 276) rapports quenait on the This remarkcould serve as an epigraphforBenjamin'swritings sociolof "croisements" or nineteenth at the crossroads history, century: of modernity theartifices urbanarchitecture, and politics, ogy,economics, of the arcades and allegory. shape passageways ofwriting in the"croisements" Baudelaire'sremark locatesmodernity with and thatlink the image,correspondence, signification synaesthesia, of thecity. Modernsubjectivity theallegoricaleffects providestheinterior
SubStance #70,1993

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baudelaire

79

where the citytransfer ("correspondance") passageway or subterranean of in a croisement ofrapports the voice. The takes scape poetic shape flidneur in the modern city gives rise to the effectsrepresentedin many of Baudelaire's poems and Benjamin'swritings. Benjaminwrotein Zentralpark, Ifit is imagination it is that tomemory, then offers thecorrespondences that toit.Memory the twotogether. dedicates the thought allegories brings In Baudelaire's "Le Cygne," monumentsand disguises go underground; theylive on in the sanctumof memory.Evanescence is made in theeffects ofstyle:"Toutpour moi devientallegorie"marks permanent the spot where thepoet has transformed thepromiseof authorialconsistency that shaped FrenchRomanticdiscourse,into the poetic voice of Barthes's"mortde l'auteur."This death marksa modernity, prefiguring decisiveturnin theeconomyof textuality; selfis thereignoftheauthorial declared to be over. In its place is the monument the transof absence, - thelooped and labyrinformed or thePassagenwerk carnival, necropolis, thinearcadesofwriting. now thattheimperial Who reigns, authoris dead? fromthe other Barthes's"empiredes signes" approaches representation and side of psychological consistency; like the Japanesebrushstrokes theatrical masksthatemblematize of Barthes's Modernism, understanding the image of the artistemergesfromBenjamin'sreading of Baudelaire, along with the vision of allegorythatis centralto the new cityscapeof of its repreModernism.The paradise of memory, the temporalartifices sentation as a paradiselostor a champs us the take elysees, through transfers ofcorrespondance to theenigmatic and unfinished ofallegory. Zentralpark

University Emory

ABBREVIATIONS USED OC Oeuvres Charles Baudelaire Completes, WORKS CITED Erich.Scenes Univ. theDrama Literature. Auerbach, Minneapolis: from ofEuropean Charles. Oeuvres Ed. ClaudePichois. Paris: 1975and Baudelaire, Pldiade, Completes. 1976.

Minnesota Press,1984.

SubStance 1993 #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

80

Schlossman Beryl

Ed. RolfTiedemann and Hermann Walter. Gesammelte SchwepSchriften. Benjamin, Frankfurt: 1974. penhauser. Suhrkamp Verlag, -. In Gesammelte Band 1,2. Zentralpark. Schriften. de Laclos,Pierre 1981. Choderlos. LesLiasions Paris:Flammarion, dangereuses. 1973. 1789:LesEmbltmes Paris:Flammarion, dela raison. Starobinski, Jean.

NOTES
1. Les Conspirateurs, de la Republique en by Adolphe Chenu,and La Naissance in in Lucien de la Paris 1850. both 1848, Hodde, by published fivrier 2. Unlessotherwise aremyown. all translations intoEnglish indicated, 3. GeneralAupickwas Baudelaire's stepfather. 4. Claude Pichois,editorof Baudelaire'sOeuvres See notes to the Complktes. poem. theNeueMozart 5. References to thescoreof "Don Giovanni"are takenfrom Rehm. Plath and Wolfgang ed. Wolfgang (Neue Ausgabe Werke, samtlicher Ausgabe vol.17.See also DonGiovanni: SerieII: Buhnenwerke, Texte, (Kassel:Barenreiter, 1968), bei HamHolland(Reinbek ed. Attila Materialien, Kommentare, Csampaiand Dietmar Taschenbuch 1981). burg:Rowohlt Verlag, of a revolutionary as a reflection 6. The conceptof Baudelaire'sprose poetry in Difigurations du langage is developedby Barbara aesthetic (Paris: Johnson poetique thepoet'sverseand his on a rupture between 1982).Johnson's Flammarion, emphasis of central conwithPaul De Man's readingof thecontinuity prose poems contrasts in Baudelaire'spoetics.See TheRhetoric ofRomanticism cepts (e.g. correspondence) 1983). (New York:ColumbiaUniversity Press,

1993 SubStance #70,

This content downloaded from 193.205.136.165 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:01:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions