Reading NelliganÉmile Nelligan (1879–1941) wrote all of his poetry as an adolescent, before spending four decades in a psychiatric asylum. Considering all of Nelligan's work and using a largely textual approach, Émile Talbot points out the Canadian roots of Nelligan's originality. He argues that these are discernable despite Nelligan's use of the discourse of nineteenth-century continental French poetry, particularly that of the Parnassians and the Decadents. Talbot's textual analysis is integrated with a consideration of the social, cultural, artistic, and religious climate of both late nineteenth-century Montreal and the European literary culture to which Nelligan was responding. Talbot considers such pertinent factors as the spirituality of guilt, the role of the mother, and a societal context that rejected both the revelation of the self and the autonomy of art. In doing so he sheds new light on Nelligan's use of European poetic language to fashion a poetry marked by his own culture. |
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âme amour associated Baudelaire Bessette blanches c'est century Charles Baudelaire Châteaux en Espagne cheveux childhood ciel Clair de lune clearly cœur connotations culture d'amour d'une Dantin death decadent discourse distich dream Emile Nelligan evoked expression fait fanées French French poetry French-Canadian frisson funèbres Georges Rodenbach Gérard Bessette Gretchen j'ai jamais jardin jeune jours l'Enfance labarum last line Le Bateau ivre Le Monde illustré littéraire melancholy mère Monde illustré Montreal mort mother Nelligan Nelligan's poem Nelligan's poetry névrose nineteenth-century noirs nostalgia nuit Parnassian person plein pleure poem's poésie poet poet's poète purity qu'un quatrain Quebec reading refers Réjean Robidoux religious rêve Rimbaud's Rodenbach Romance du vin Romantic rondel sadness Saint Saint Cecilia second quatrain semes sensual sexuality ship signifiers sœur soir soleil sonnet soul sous spirituality stanza syntagm tercet Théophile Gautier Tombeau tout triste tristesse Vaisseau d'Or Verlaine verse veux vierge voix woman word