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'The name Mallarmé has become a tool for the praise and condemnation of poetry. In French philosophy, he is associated with the intoxicating idea of poetry as politically efficacious, and the counter-charge of effete elitism. In this lively and impressive re-telling, we see how this poet becomes a magnet for a stunning cascade of delirious praise and vilification. Robert Boncardo convincingly shows that despite the insights of the French obsession with Mallarmé, we need new ways to formulate the links between politics and literature.'
Alison Ross, Monash University.
Robert Boncardo investigates how Stéphane Mallarmé, one of modernity's most ingenious yet obscure poets, became an object of major political significance for French intellectuals.
With in-depth studies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Kristeva, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière, along with shorter analyses of Jean-Claude Milner and Quentin Meillassoux, Boncardo situates Mallarmé within the philosophical and political projects of some of France's greatest thinkers.
He asks how this most refined and seemingly aristocratic of poets became the writer of choice for leftist intellectuals and reflects on the ambivalent relation between literature and its political destiny in modernity.
Robert Boncardo is a tutor at Sydney University. He completed his doctorate in French Studies at the University of Sydney and Aix-Marseille Université.
Cover image: iStockphoto.com and text from Mallarmé's Notes en vue du 'Livre'
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edinburghuniversitypress.com
ISBN [PPC] 978-1-4744-2952-8
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List of contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Series Editor's Preface
Introduction: Comrade Mallarmé
- Jean-Paul Sartre's Mallarmé: Hero of an Ontological Drama, Agent of the Counter-revolution
- Julia Kristeva's Mallarmé: From Fetishism to the Theatre-Book
- Alain Badiou's Mallarmé: From the Structural Dialectic to the Poetry of the Event
- Jean-Claude Milner's Mallarmé: Nothing Has Taken Place
- Jacques Rancière's Mallarmé: Deferring Equality
Conclusion: From One Siren to Another
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Robert Boncardo is Tutor in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. He completed his doctorate in French Studies at the University of Sydney and Aix-Marseille Université.
Summary
With in-depth studies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Kristeva, Alain Badiou and Jacques Ranciere, along with shorter analyses of Jean-Claude Milner and Quentin Meillassoux, Boncardo asks how Stephane Mallarme became so politically significant for left-wing French intellectuals.
