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Benjamin Custis Williams, The Messianic Redemption of French Symbolist Aesthetic Theory, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 52, Issue 4, October 2016, Pages 414–432, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqw055
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Abstract
This study of French symbolist petites revues of the 1890s analyses two trends in discourse on poetry. First, I show that, consistent with traditional generic hierarchies, critics of the movement deemed symbolist theory futile without masterpieces to back it up, while even its own theorists like Charles Morice said the same. This poetic interrègne (Mallarmé’s term) following Hugo’s death will be familiar to specialists, but I provide new evidence of the polemical nature of these debates: theorists might appear as ‘eunuques’, ‘prophètes’, or both. Second, after demonstrating this repurposing of the poet-prophet figure within a polemical context, I demonstrate that numerous writers responded by predicting a poetic ‘messiah’. That is, they prophesied that a transcendent, messianic poet’s masterpiece would eventually vindicate his predecessors’ work. I argue for the ambivalence of this messianic trope, which both concedes to critics’ accusations and takes deferred credit for the ineluctable, glorious triumph of literary progress.
