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The sacred occupies a central place in the poetry of Guillevic, who described himself as a 'matérialiste religieux'. This study, informed by anthropological and psychoanalytical thought, examines the evolution of this aspect of his oeuvre from Terraqué (1942) through to the poet's last works and focuses in particular on the relation between the sacred and the mother figure. A semiotic approach is used for close textual analysis of key poems. Guillevic's poetic endeavour is conceived as an archaeological quest whereby the presence of the archaic within the domain of the real is disclosed and mythical patterns emerge. The re-enactment of the cosmogony, the performance of ritual and the process of mourning - all crucial to poetic creativity itself - are identified as motivating forces through which the poet seeks reparation of the mother. This study will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as to teachers of French literature, and will provide a useful introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with the unique voice of this major 20th century poet.
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The sacred occupies a central place in the poetry of Guillevic, who described himself as a 'matérialiste religieux'. This study, informed by anthropological and psychoanalytical thought, examines the evolution of this aspect of his oeuvre from Terraqué (1942) through to the poet's last works and focuses in particular on the relation between the sacred and the mother figure. A semiotic approach is used for close textual analysis of key poems. Guillevic's poetic endeavour is conceived as an archaeological quest whereby the presence of the archaic within the domain of the real is disclosed and mythical patterns emerge. The re-enactment of the cosmogony, the performance of ritual and the process of mourning - all crucial to poetic creativity itself - are identified as motivating forces through which the poet seeks reparation of the mother. This study will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as to teachers of French literature, and will provide a useful introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with the unique voice of this major 20th century poet.
A selection of poems from one of the most highly regarded late-twentieth century poets
Eugene Guillevic, who died in 1997, was one of France's most important contemporary poets. Dating from 1961, Carnac marks the beginning of Guillevic's mature life as a poet. A single poem divided into several parts, it evokes the rocky, sea-bound, unfinished landscape of Brittany with its sacred objects and its great silent sense of waiting. The texts are brief but have a grave, meditative serenity, as the poet seeks to effect balance and help us to make friends with nature, as well as to live in a universe which is chaotic and often frightening. In this poetry of description -- where entire landscapes are built up from short, intense texts -- language is reduced to its essentials, as words are placed on the page like a dam against time, and aspire to what John Montague calls their mystic materialism.
Poetry. Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth. Guillevic wrote GEOMETRIES (Euclidiennes in French) in the early sixities, after his friend, the poet Andre Frenaud, recognizing in his poetry an inclination toward mathematics, and more specifically geometry, encouraged him to pursue this direction. Guillevic places a series of geometrical figures before our eyes, as they might appear in a schoolchild's primer, paired with poems that let us hear how these forms might speak. These talking circles, squares and angles--these articulations of space--are in turn meant to remind us of our own figures of speech. Guillevic's GEOMETRIES fits into the 1960s return to emblems, signs, and playful constraints both in art (Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and even Andy Warhol) and in writing (the Noigandres poets, Oulipo, Eugen Gomringer, the Robert Creeley of Pieces). But at the same time, the Euclidean world of forms here explored remains as timeless as the stones of Guillevic's own Carnac.