From Baudelaire to Mallarmé. In search of the ideal of musicality

Abstract

This article undertakes the topic of the evolution in perceiving the ideal of literary musicality among representatives of French symbolism, taking into account Baudelaire and Mallarmé. The former, who is considered to be the precursor of symbolism, used prosody and combined the arts and music to convey the metaphor of painting and poetry. On the other hand, in Mallarmé’s oeuvre, it is poetry that moves closer to music on the level of form. Next, the utilization of the acoustic aspect of text, which is characteristic of Verlaine, is degraded in René Ghil’s artificial system of verbal instrumentation. The work of Villiers de l’Isle Adam and Jules Laforgue shows that music-related topics are gradually set aside and the music theme is softened and gives way to silence. Silence itself is the best way that presents Mallarmé’s ideal of musicality as a silent concert that resonates in the reader’s mind.