Rimbaud poéticien by Olivier Bivort (review)

The sixteen contributions contained in this volume are the proceedings of a 2013 conference held in Venice, one notable for strong representation by international scholars (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US). In his Introduction, Olivier Bivort contends that the distinctive quality of the Rimbaldian poem and poetics is that they evolve of a piece: Rimbaud's writing is one in which 'l'être et le faire se contemplent et s'imbriquent l'un dans l'autre' (p. 11), a feature that is most strongly epitomized by Illuminations. Although the contributors seem on the whole divided by this suggestion, the subsequent individual chapters are rich and diverse in their offerings. Dominique Combe demonstrates that the trend of scholarship has been to leave open the question of Rimbaud's status as poetician, and stresses the growing critical reluctance across the twentieth century to view his work as amenable to theorization; Henri Scepi revisits the subjectivity/objectivity binary as it appears in the 'Lettre du voyant'; while Hermann H. Wetzel focuses on the inherent terminological difficulties faced by scholarship in keeping apace with contemporary developments in poetry (and the ensuing complications in establishing a poetics). Two chapters on Parnassianism are instructive: Yann Mortelette offers a rich account of the various stages that lead from the poet's initial plagiarism of the Parnassians to his ultimate posture of mockery, while Yves Reboul presents a textually informed analysis of Rimbaud's curious relation to Albert Mérat. Another feature of this volume is the particularly high level of spirited yet subtle critical engagement by different contributors with the work of other Rimbaldian scholars; this is the case of Yoshikazu Nakaji's exploration of self-critique in 'Alchimie du verbe', a piece accompanied by some 'notes après-coup' by way of a response by Michel Murat. Murat's personal contribution attends to the cognitive, ethical, enunciatory, and pragmatic dimensions of irony in Rimbaud; Mario Richter explores the resonance of Baudelairean conceptions of beauty in the 'autre' of the affirmation 'Je est un autre', while Aurélia Cervoni argues that references to sophism in the poet's work are indicative of Rimbaud's self-criticism of his own poetics. In a rewarding analysis of the 'sacredness' of disorder, Seth Whidden examines metric complexities in the poetry in the context of a weakening imperial authority, underscoring thereby a radical departure within Rimbaud from the theme of the Romantic consecration of the writer. While Jean-Luc Steinmetz explores Rimbaud's hallucinatory poetics, André Guyaux offers an analysis of avatars of the self in the context of 'Je est un autre'; concentrating on Rimbaud's use of pronouns, he argues boldly that the various mechanisms of substitution they serve are in fact evidence of 'une surenchère de l'ego' (p. 162) allowing for greater self-definition. Andrea Schellino explores tensions between harmony and disharmony in Illuminations, and in the two concluding chapters Maria Emanuela Raffi and Adrien Cavallaro offer light on the various formules around which Rimbaud's poetic practice is structured. While undoubtedly of interest primarily to a specialist readership, the essays contained in this volume offer a very strong indication of the vibrant state of Rimbaldian studies today.