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The French poetry of some five centuries is here surveyed in a series of studies of the work and personality of individual poets from Villon to the present day. Each chapter is primarily concerned with establishing the ‘literary identity’ of the poet or poets with whom it deals: the work of each is outlined and related to the historical and biographical circumstances in which it was written; and its characteristics are then examined critically in terms relevant to the modern reader. Comparisons are made between different poets, and more general topics – such as the concepts of ‘classic’ and ‘baroque’ – are discussed. This book, first published in 1956, had become a standard introductory work for students of French poetry and general readers alike. For this revised edition, originally published in 1973, new chapters have been added on ‘irregular’ seventeenth-century poets and on various modern poets whose work now enables the Surrealist movement to be seen in clearer perspective. The bibliography has been revised extensively.
Works by Villon, Ronsard, Voltaire, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, many more. Full French texts with literal English translations on facing pages. Biographical, critical information on each poet. Introduction. 31 black-and-white illustrations.
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.