Rhetorical and Social Geographies in Stéphane Mallarmé's 'Bucolique'

Two themes of Mallarmé’s later work – the expansion of poetic language and the changing public role of literature – converge in Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1895 poème critique [critical poem] "Bucolique." In her reading of the poem, Pies analyzes how the poem’s dialogue between the poet’s public and private selves and the use of blank space enact the expansion of poetic language that Mallarmé proposes in his later work, especially "La Musique et les lettres." Arguing that "Bucolique," like "Déplacement avantageux," traces a mental journey in which the flight from the city involves a return to the urban center, she suggests that "Bucolique" reveals the city, the site of public life, as a locus of poetry. (SP)