The Traumatic Origins of Baudelaire's Poetics: Criticism out of Crisis

When, in 1844 a conseil judiciaire was appointed to regulate Baudelaire's finances, the poet likened the moment to his own death: he was traumatized by it. Almost immediately thereafter, however, one of the explosions of activity that characterize his literary production took place, and this activity was overwhelmingly art-critical. Baudelaire thus chose art criticism as a response to his loss of autonomy, and this choice carries the trace of its traumatic origin. Baudelaire's art criticism recalls and repeats an early trauma, and this criticism is in turn a model for his later poetic theory. (TR)