OXFORD MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE MONOGRAPHS EditorialCommittee . .  . .  .  . .  . .  . . .  . . .  This page intentionally left blank Tristan Corbie`re and the Poetics of Irony KATHERINE LUNN-ROCKLIFFE CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD 1 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork KatherineLunn-Rockliffe2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Lunn-Rockliffe,Katherine,1974- TristanCorbie`reandthepoeticsofirony/KatherineLunn-Rockliffe. p.cm.—(Oxfordmodernlanguagesandliteraturemonographs) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978–0–19–929588–3(alk.paper) ISBN-10:0–19–929588–3(alk.paper) 1. Corbie`re,Tristan,1845–1875—Criticismandinterpretation. 2. Ironyin literature. I. Title. II. Series. PQ2211.C32Z7482006 841(cid:1).8—dc22 2006008892 TypesetbyLaserwordsPrivateLimited,Chennai,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0–19–929588–3 978–0–19–929588–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Acknowledgements I  like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board for fundingthedoctoralresearchonwhichthisbookisbased,andHertford College, Oxford, for a Baring Senior Scholarship which assisted the preparation of thethesis. I am indebted to St Anne’sCollege, Oxford, first for awarding me a Fulford Junior Research Fellowship, which enabledmetocompletethebook,andsecondlyforcontinuingtosupport mewhileIheldaBritishAcademyPostdoctoralResearchFellowship,in thecourseofwhichthefinalmanuscriptwasdelivered.Iamextremely grateful to Jim Hiddleston for supervising the original project and for offering continued guidance. I would also like to thank Malcolm Bowie,PatrickMcGuinness,AnneHolmes,andRogerPensomfortheir valuable support and feedback, and Rachel Killick and Steve Murphy for commenting on earlier versions. I owe much to Lisa Downing, Ed Welch,RuthCruickshank,andMirandaGillfortheirdiscussionsandI thankthemfortheirconstantencouragement.Specialthanksaredueto Nicola Thomas, Wanda Wyporska, Sophie Ratcliffe, Ian Sheehy, and SophieLunn-Rockliffe.Thisbookisdedicatedtomyparents. This page intentionally left blank Contents NoteonReferences viii Introduction 1 1. Voice-DefyingLyricism 11 2. DescribingBrittany:MultiplePerspectives 52 3. PortraitsoftheArtist:IronizingIrony 93 4. ‘Thought-Feeling’:TheLanguageofSensation 131 5. ‘Rondelspouraprès’:CircularSuggestion 171 Conclusion 216 Appendix:Anearlydraftof‘VederNapolipoimori’ 220 Bibliography 221 Index 231 Note on References I have used the Pléiade edition of Corbière’s Œuvres complètes, ed. Pierre-OlivierWalzer,inCharlesCros,TristanCorbière:Œuvrescomplètes (Paris:Gallimard,1970).QuotationsfrompoemsinLesAmoursjaunes aresimplyfollowedbylinenumbersgiveninthetext.Wherereference is made to other material in the Pléiade edition, it is identified by the abbreviationOC.AllitalicsinthequotationsareCorbière’sown. Introduction TstudyofTristanCorbie`re’spoetryaimstoshowhowhisinnovative use of irony contributed to the general revolution in poetic language that marked the 1870s. Corbie`re’s idiosyncratic blend of oral diction, quotation, and self-contradiction is often overlooked in mainstream literary histories, but it is at the root of what Edmund Wilson calls the‘conversational-ironic’branchofSymbolism,¹influencingLaforgue in the 1880s, and Pound and Eliot in the twentieth century. This tradition is often overshadowed by the parallel current of ‘serious- aesthetic’poetryexemplifiedbyMallarme´,²butironycancreateeffects asobliqueandindeterminateasthemorerarefiedformsof‘purepoetry’. Like his contemporaries such as Rimbaud, who are so often classed as Symbolists, Corbie`re is strictly speaking a precursor of the Symbolist movement proper. His single published volume, Les Amours jaunes, appeared in 1873, well before the movement gathered force in the 1880s,andwaswritteninisolationfromotheroriginators.Heisoften seen asthearchetypal po`etemaudit, amisunderstoodoutsiderinrevolt against conventions, and his brief but colourful life certainly fuels this myth.However,hisoriginalityliesinthewayhesubvertsthecliche´sof the po`ete maudit and inscribes marginality in the very language of his verse,whichHuysmansdescribesas‘a`peinefranc¸ais’.³ Irony lies at the heart of Corbie`re’s aesthetic of defamiliarization and operates at all levels from verbal wit to cosmic pessimism. During the nineteenth century, irony emerged as a hallmark of modernity, and in the process became far more than a mere trope. In its many guises it remains a defining feature of Western culture, so Corbie`re’s use of irony to explore the spiritual void and the crisis-ridden sub- ject still seems profoundly modern at the start of the twenty-first century.Henonethelesscontinuestoperplexreaders,bearingoutEzra ¹ EdmundWilson,Axel’sCastle(NewYork:CharlesScribner’sSons,1948),96. ² Ibid. ³ J.-K.Huysmans,A`rebours,Folio(Paris:Gallimard,1977),306.