Frameworks for Mallarmé : The Photo and the Graphic of an Interdisciplinary Aesthetic

The influence of photography and visual culture on the French poet, journalist, and critic. Countering the conventional image of the deliberately obscure ivory-tower poet, Frameworks for Mallarmé presents Stéphane Mallarmé as a journalist and critic who was actively engaged with the sociocultural and technological shifts of his era. Gayle Zachmann introduces a writer whose aesthetic was profoundly shaped by contemporary innovations in print and visual culture, especially the nascent art of photography. She analyzes the preeminence of the visual in conjunction with Mallarmé's quest for scientific language, and convincingly links the poet's production to a nineteenth-century understanding of cognition that is articulated in terms of optical perception. The result is a distinctly modern recuperation of the Horatian doctrine of ut pictura poesis in Mallarmé's poetry and his circumstantial writings.

Zachmann's work represents a truly excellent cultural and literary analysis of Mallarmé as a poet very much of his time, in tune both with the technological innovations and aesthetic ramifications of the art of photography and with the strategic innovations of the impressionist painters, who, like contemporary photographers, placed great emphasis on perception. By situating Mallarmé within his aesthetic cultural context, Zachmann succeeds in shedding convincing light on some of his more 'obscure' writings and also in presenting a compelling total portrait of Mallarmé as an artist whose aesthetic vision remained remarkably consistent throughout his life. - Katharine Conley, author of Robert Desnos, Surrealism, and the Marvelous in Everyday Life
"Countering the conventional image of the deliberately obscure "ivory-tower poet," Frameworks for Mallarme presents Stephane Mallarme as a journalist and critic who was actively engaged with the sociocultural and technological shifts of his era. Gayle Zachmann introduces a writer whose aesthetic was profoundly shaped by contemporary innovations in print and visual culture, especially the nascent art of photography. She analyzes the preeminence of the visual in conjunction with Mallarme's quest for "scientific" language, and convincingly links the poet's production to a nineteenth-century understanding of cognition that is articulated in terms of optical perception. The result is a distinctly modern recuperation of the Horatian doctrine of ut pictura poesis in Mallarme's poetry and his circumstantial writings."--Jacket Countering the conventional image of the deliberately obscure'ivory-tower poet,'Frameworks for Mallarmé presents Stéphane Mallarmé as a journalist and critic who was actively engaged with the sociocultural and technological shifts of his era. Gayle Zachmann introduces a writer whose aesthetic was profoundly shaped by contemporary innovations in print and visual culture, especially the nascent art of photography. She analyzes the preeminence of the visual in conjunction with Mallarmé's quest for'scientific'language, and convincingly links the poet's production to a nineteenth-century understanding of cognition that is articulated in terms of optical perception. The result is a distinctly modern recuperation of the Horatian doctrine of ut pictura poesis in Mallarmé's poetry and his circumstantial writings. Frameworks for Mallarmé......Page 4 CONTENTS......Page 8 ILUSTRATIONS......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 12 ABBREVIATIONS......Page 14 INTRODUCTION: Picture this......Page 16 1. FRAMES OF REFERENCE I......Page 30 2. FRAMES OF REFERENCE II......Page 50 3. FRAMES OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN “IGITUR”......Page 76 4. FRAMEDWORKS AND MALLARMÉ......Page 106 5. FRAME WORKS FOR MALLARMÉ......Page 138 6. INTERARTISTIC FRAMEWORKS......Page 164 CODA: EXPOSING CHANGE......Page 180 NOTES......Page 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 204 B......Page 218 F......Page 219 M......Page 220 P......Page 222 V......Page 223 Z......Page 224 Frameworks for Mallarmé 4 CONTENTS 8 ILUSTRATIONS 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12 ABBREVIATIONS 14 INTRODUCTION: Picture this 16 1. FRAMES OF REFERENCE I 30 2. FRAMES OF REFERENCE II 50 3. FRAMES OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN “IGITUR” 76 4. FRAMEDWORKS AND MALLARMÉ 106 5. FRAME WORKS FOR MALLARMÉ 138 6. INTERARTISTIC FRAMEWORKS 164 CODA: EXPOSING CHANGE 180 NOTES 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY 204 INDEX 218 A 218 B 218 C 219 D 219 E 219 F 219 G 220 H 220 I 220 J 220 K 220 L 220 M 220 N 222 O 222 P 222 R 223 S 223 T 223 U 223 V 223 W 224 Z 224