The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune by Kristin Ross (review)

112Rocky Mountain Review KRISTIN ROSS. The Emergence ofSocial Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988. 170 p. Both the Paris Commune and Arthur Rimbaud can be considered exceptional, emblematic moments in French culture. They are indeed "moments," sudden eruptions that lasted hardly longer than a flicker in time, yet left a scar on the cultural landscape which is not likely to disappear. Their very brevity, their meteoric ascent and descent, have fascinated successive generations often more than their underlying causes and effects. The connection between Rimbaud and the Commune of 1871, therefore, has provided a natural if often explored field of inquiry for scholars of both poetry and history. This recent study by Kristin Ross approaches the subject from an original, often enlightening perspective that should generate some fruitful thought and discussion about politics and poetry or, one might say, about the poetry of politics and the politics of poetry. An urgent question arises from the outset: can one better understand the Commune by referring to Rimbaud or, conversely, can one better understand Rimbaud by referring to the Commune? Ross would probably admit that this methodological question lies at the heart of her enterprise. Most literary studies have taken up the second question rather than the first in an attempt to prove or disprove the impact ofthe Paris Commune on Rimbaud's life and works. The intriguing image of Rimbaud as a kind of rebellious, insolent Gavroche joining the Parisian workers on the barricades will probably never by solved to complete satisfaction. Unless new biographical or historical documentation comes forth (Ross makes no claim to new revelations in this area), scholars can only hypothesize about the direct involvement of Rimbaud in the tragic events of the spring of 1871. His letters attest to his enthusiasm and solidarity with the upheaval, but he may just as well have heard the call to arms from Charleville as from Paris. Whatever the case may be, the fermentation (or spontaneous combustion?) taking place in the streets of Paris coincided with Rimbaud's own thrusting efforts to overthrow some of the more traditional poetic forms and values. Yet despite several resounding formulae and slogans such as can be found in the "Lettre du voyant," Rimbaud can hardly be considered an "engagé" social militant. One still finds much of his poetry, even that of the Commune period, to be firmly grounded in many of the principles he was seeking to subvert. "Le Bateau ivre" remains, after all, quite conventional in form despite its daring imagery and vigorous rhythms. The conflicting attempts to explain Rimbaud by way of the Commune have led to many ingenious readings of his poetry, most of which are based on little more than the critic's own fantasy or desire to make him conform to some pre-established mold. The only way to avoid such conflicting and contradictory interpretations might be just to accept them as such; Rimbaud no more had a systematic, poetic theory than he had a social or political credo. Ross therefore wisely avoids the temptation to see Rimbaud as a direct product of the Communards. She rather sees these Book Reviews113 two extraordinary phenomena as illustrating each other, as concurrent manifestations of a much more deeply seated social, political, and poetic crisis. The reader might be somewhat surprised that neither her text nor her bibliography contains even mention of previous attempts to make Rimbaud into something or someone that he probably never was. One can search in vain for references and reactions to, or refutations of, such landmark studies as those of Etiemble, Marcel Ruff, Antoine Adam, or Jean-Pierre Richard. Despite differences ofopinion with the Establishment—and it is quite obvious that Ross has many of these—one cannot help but wonder whether any new work of criticism on a writer like Rimbaud can afford to be so chary in the debt it owes to predecessors. Ross' study sometimes indulges in the creation of a myth of Rimbaud, albeit a counter-myth, at the very time when such consensus seems to be impracticable. The approach is best summed up by the title, which suggests the way in which social space (and time...