Position and Negation in Mallarmé's "Prose pour des Esseintes"

Author(s): Karlheinz Stierle and Sibylle Kisro

Source: Yale French Studies, No. 54, Mallarme (1977), pp. 96-117
Published by: Yale University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929991
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Karlheinz Stierle

Position and Negation in Mallarme's

"Prose pour des Esseintes"

... le demontageimpie de la fictionet con-

sequemment du mecanisme litteraire pour
etaler la piece principaleou rien.

PROSE

pour des Esseintes.

HYPERBOLE! de ma memoire
Triomphalement ne sais-tu
Te lever, aujourd'hui grimoire
Dans un livre de fer vetu:

Car j'installe,par la science,

L'hymnedes cceursspirituels
En l'ceuvrede ma patience,
Atlas, herbierset rituels.

Nous promenionsnotre visage

(Nous fumesdeux, je le maintiens)
Sur maints charmes de paysage,
O sceur,y comparantles tiens.
L'ere d'autoritese trouble
Lorsque, sans nul motif,on dit
De ce midi que notre double
Inconscience approfondit

Que, sol des cent iris, son site,

Ils savent s'il a bien ete,
Ne porte pas de nom que cite
L'or de la trompetted'Tte'.

Oui, dans une ile que l'air charge

De vue et non de visions
Toute fleurs'etalait plus large
Sans que nous en devisions.

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Karlheinz Stierle

Telles, immenses,que chacune

Ordinairement se para
D'un lucide contour,lacune,
Qui des jardins la separa.

Gloire du long desir,Idees

Tout en moi s'exaltaitde voir
La familledes iridees
SurgirA ce nouveau devoir,

Mais cette sceursensee et tendre

Ne porta son regardplus loin
Que sourireet, commea l'entendre
J'occupemon antique soin.

Oh! sache l'Esprit de litige,

A cette heure oui nous nous taisons,
Que de lis multiplesla tige
Grandissaittrop pour nos raisons

Et non comme pleure la rive,

Quand son jeu monotonement
A vouloir que l'ampleurarrive
Parmi mon jeune etonnement

D'ouir tout le ciel et la carte

Sans finattestessur mes pas,
Par le flotmeme qui s'ecarte,
Que ce pays n'exista pas.

L'enfantabdique son extase

Et docte deja par chemins
Elle dit le mot: Anastase!
Ne pour d'eternelsparchemins,

Avant qu'un sepulcre ne rie

Sous aucun climat,son aieul,
De porter ce nom: Pulcherie!
Cache par le tropgrandglaieul.

Central to Frederic Schlegel's essay "Ober das Studium der Grie-

chischen Poesie" is the thesis that modem as opposed to classical

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 Yale FrenchStudies

poetryis essentiallydependent uponwhathe calls "directing con-

cepts."1 This view is strikinglyconfirmed by Mallarm6'spoetry,
whichseemsto realizethe tendenciesput forwardby Schlegelin
a moreradicalwaythanhe mayeverhave imagined.The predom-
inanceof such "directing concepts"in Mallarme'spoetrymeans
that his poetic productionis a functionof his poetic theory.
in viewofhis "Prosepourdes Esseintes,"traditionally
Particularly
rankedamonghis most difficult poems,it becomesthe foremost
task of interpretation to disclose this relationbetweenpoetical
manifestation and the conceptsguidingit. The impressive amount
of enlightening detail about this poem providedby Mallarme
exegesis2 has helpedto clarifywhatthe textmeanswithout, how-
ever, puttingenough emphasison the intentionbehind such
meaning.This is whyit is necessaryto go back to Mallarm6's
own theoretical thoughtin orderto put intoprofilethose"direct-
ing concepts"to whichpoeticalproduction is heresubjected.Only
then can the corresponding processof positionand negationin
"Prosepourdes Esseintes"be described.
Mallarme'spoetryhas its sourcein his poeticsof reflexivity,
wherelanguagefrombeingthemediumofpoeticmessageis turned
into its verysubject.This impliesa shiftin interestfromthings
presentedto the mannerof presentation. While the focus of
Baudelaire'spoeticsstill lay with the imaginativeconsciousness
of a lyrical"I," Mallarmeputs languagein its place, understood

I F. Schlegel, "lTber das Studium der griechischenPoesie"

(1795-96),
Prosaische Jugendschriften,ed. by I. Minor, 2nd edition, vol. I, Vienna,
1906, p. 99.
2 Among the vast number of interpretations and commentariesthe
followingstudies by L. J. Austin deserve particularinterest: "Mallarme,
Huysrnanset la 'Prose pour des Esseintes',"RHLF 54 (1954), pp. 145-183;
"Du nouveau sur la 'Prose pour des Esseintes'," Mercure de France 323
(1955), pp. 84-101; "Mallarme and the 'Prose pour des Esseintes'," Forum
for Modern Language Studies II (1966), pp. 197-213. The prevalent oc-
cupationwith the intertextualrelationsof the poem, oftenregardedas the
only key to its obscurities,has resultedin a surprisingneglect of its own
textuality.One of the few interpretationswhichseriouslytryto understand
Mallarme'spoetry in the contextof his own theorycan be found in the
chapter on Mallarme in G. Poulet, Etudes sur le temps humain, II: La
distanceinterieure,Paris 1952, pp. 298-355.Poulet's interpretation
however
of Prose in Les metamorphoses du cercle, Paris, 1961, is only partly
convincing.

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Karlheinz Stierle

as a consciousness without a correspondingsubject. His poetical

innovations are based upon radical innovationin the use of lan-
guage. He triesforthe firsttimeto organizelanguageitselfpoetical-
ly, making its inherentpotentialitythe very subject of poetry.
The poet, no longer (like Baudelaire and Nerval) preoccupiedwith
subjectivitycaught in itself,providinghim with its own images,
becomes "grammarian,"developingthe instrumentof language in
the untried realm beyond the conventionsof everydaycommuni-
cation. "Cher grammairien,"says a letterto Verlaine, "vous tenez
vraimentvotre syntaxe."3
Fiction is the termby which Mallarme designatesthe poetic as
opposed to all other uses of language. Only when language is re-
organized as fictiondoes it become free of its usual dependency
upon the demands of everydaycommunicationwhich reduce its
inherentpossibilitiesto a bare minimumof usefulness.The essen-
tial task of poetryor, to be more precise,of fictionis thereforeto
elaborate the possibilitiesof language only deficientlyrealized in
pragmaticcommunication.Fiction for Mallarme is a state of lan-
guage called "essentiel" as opposed to its everydayuse which is
"brut ou immediat."Used pragmatically,language cannot be per-
ceived in itself; it aims directlyat the intended communication
beyond it. On the other hand, fictionin Mallarme's sense is inex-
tricablylinked to language. By this characteristichis concept of
fictioncan be distinguishedfromthe one normallyused in literary
theory. "Narrer, enseigner,decrire" as formsof an "emploi ele-
mentaire du discours,"I the eminent paradigm of which today
is reportage, still comprise their non-pragmatic,"fictional" use
as long as this is only intended as an analogon to pragmatic
use. Fiction in Mallarme's sense, however,is marked by a poetic
virtualitywhich sends the reader back frommeaningto its con-

3 Mallarme, Propos sur la poesie, recueillispar H. Mondor, Monaco,

1953, p. 192.
4 "Crise de vers," (Euvres completes,ed. by H. Mondor and G. Jean-
Aubry,Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, Paris 1961, p. 368. Furtherquotations
will be from this edition.

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 Yale French Studies

ditions in language. "Au contraire d'une fonctionde numeraire

facile et representatif, comme le traite d'abord la foule, le dire,
avant tout, reve et chant, retrouve chez le Poete, par necessite
constitutived'un art consacre aux fictions,sa virtualite"'(p. 368).
How closely philosophyof language and poetry are related to
each otherin Mallarme maybe seen in one of his earlylettersto his
friendH. Cazalis, where he commentson the firstversion of his
poem "Ses purs ongles,"which marksthe beginningof a new phase
in his poetics. Mallarme mentionsthat this sonnet developed out
of a studyon languagehe was workingon at the time. "J'extraisce
sonnet,auquel j'avais une fois songe cet ete, d'une etude projetee
sur la Parole." I Accordingto him, the poetic effectof this sonnet
is the work of "un mirage internedes mots memes." The poetic
functionof language is opposed to the functionof communication
and can be disclosed only througha reflectivereversalof the point
of view. Thus the "sonnet nul et se reflechissantde toutes les
faqons"6 becomes a new ideal of flction.In the firstdraftof his
projected theoryof speech7 we read: "Le langage lui est apparu
l'instrumentde la fiction... Le langage se reflechissant." 8 "Langage

se reflechissant" and fiction9 are identicalin so far as fictionmeans

the constitutionof a conceptual complex which no longerrefersto
realitynor to any analogon of the real. Fiction becomes a radical
complementto that which exists. This, however, is possible on
the basis of language only. While for Descartes, as cited by Mal-
larme, method still indicates a possibilityof escaping the fictions
of the human mind, to Mallarme fictionitself is the aim of all
method,the creationof a new realityimmanentin language."Enfin
la fictionlui semble etre le procede mermede l'esprit humain."10

5 Propos, p. 98.
6 Propos, p. 99.
Notes, GEuvrescompletes, pp. 851-856. For Mallarmes theory of
7
language and its impact on his poetry see the Mallarm6 chapter in H.
Friedrich, Die Strukcturder modernen Lyrik, Reinbek, 1967, and E. Gaede,
"Le problrmedu langagechez Mallarm6,"RHLF 68 (1968), pp. 45-65.
8 Op. Cit,., p. 851.
9 Mallarm6'sinsightinto the connectionof fictionand reflexivity can
be a basis for a generaltheoryof fiction.See K. Stierle,"Was heif3tRezep-
tion bei fiktionalen Texten?," Poetica 7 (1975), pp. 345-387.
10 Loc. cit.

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Karlheinz Stierle

It is a use of language which permitsan immediateawareness of

the inherentconceptualityof language. Only in the contextof fic-
tion, can the concept,"la notion,"be referredback to itselfand can
thus be experiencedin its own right."Le momentde la Notion d'un
objet est donc le moment de la reflexionde son present pur en
lui-memeou sa purete presente."11The momentof "notion" is the
momentof poetry.The inherentreflexivity of the "notion" in the
contextof fictioncan be compared to the perspectiveof "epoche"
in Husserl's phenomenologicalreduction.While for Husserl, how-
ever, this reductionleaves over "das reine BewuBtsein in seinem
absoluten Eigensein" as "phanomenologischesResiduum,"12 the
residuum of Mallarme's reductionis the concept as given in lan-
guage, inevitablyrelated to its "signifiant."
As fictionfor Mallarme is the place where Language can grow
conscious of itselfby being transferredfromtransitiveto reflexive
use, negationforhim is the formof fictionmostperfectly embodying
the "momentde la notion."While all affirmative fictionstill implies
pragmatic"usefulness,"negationopens the sphereof pureconceptual
position.Whateveris negatedis givenas pure virtualityimmanently
constitutedin language. Mallarme, followingmultiple suggestions
of philosophical speculation on language, realizes negation as an
essential achievementof language, but he is the firstto turn this
insightinto an organon for his own poetics. Both the relation of
negationand fictionand the peculiar status of negationin fictional
texts have only recentlyaroused the interestof literarytheory.13
Negation as fictionin fiction,which often determinesthe special
structureof fictionto an eminent degree, is the other side to a
fictionalwhole made up of a positive and a negativedomain,with
the positive domain as primaryfictionimpressingon the negative

11 Op. cit., p. 853.

12 It would be worth a detailed investigationto see how Mallarme's
functionalidealism relates to the functionalidealism in Husserl's phe-
nomenologyand in Frege's analysis of language. Especially Frege's "Die
Verneinung"develops in detail some of the premisseswhich are also at
the basis of Mallarm6'spoetics of negation.
13 See K. Stierle,"Der Gebrauch der Negation in fiktionalenTexten,"
Text als Handlung,Munich, 1975, pp. 98-130.

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domain as secondaryfiction.In narrativefiction,negationnormally

indicates occasional possibilities of bifurcationin the narrative
contextand is thus functionallysubjectedto the positionof the text.
Mallarme reversesthis relation of predominancebetween fictional
negationand positionaccordingto his radicalizedconceptof fiction
in which he realizes its intricateinterdependencewith negation.
The sphere of negationthus becomes the sphere of the poem as a
privilegedformof fiction,while fictionalpositionis reduced to the
role of frameor focus. Mallarme gave shape to this poetical con-
sequence of what began as a philosophicalreflectionon language
in his much quoted passage:

A quoi bon la merveillede transposerun fait de nature en sa presque

disparitionvibratoireselon le jeu de la parole, cependant; si ce n'est pour
qu'en 6mane,sans la gene d'un proche ou concret rappel,la notion pure.

Je dis: une fleur! et, hors de l'oubli oii ma voix relegue aucun contour,
en tant que quelque chose d'autre que les calices sus, musicalementse leve,
idee merneet suave, labsente de tous les bouquets. (p. 368)

Fictional position is brought down by the poetic procedure of

"presque disparationvibratoire"to a remnantwhose only function
is to act as an indifferentstartingpoint for the poetic motion. It
sets offa process of negationwhich puts whateverwas given pos-
itively into the virtualityof a yet unthoughtcontext and at the
same time leaves the consciousness of the reader with the task
of realizing, and in realization, of transcendingthe difference
between position and negative counter-position.It is not only the
tension between semanticabsence and presence,between negation
and position which creates Mallarme's poem, but also the tension
betweensemanticabsence and poeticalpresenceof the word signify-
ing semantic absence. The materialpresence of the word open to
sensual experienceis relatedby negationto the paradoxicalpresence
of an absence which is effectedand realized in verbal articulation.
Thus negationis not onlythatformof fictionwhichprovidesa pure
representationof the virtualityof language; it also makes evident
that the reflexivemode of language always impliesboth manifesta-

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tion in language and a certain conditioningof the conceptual con-

text. Among the poetical devices of reflexion,negation with its
motion fromposition to conscious absence and fromthere to the
presenceof phoneticmanifestationis the basic one. It is correlated
to all those syntacticaldevices of suspensewhichcontinuouslyturn
the text back upon itself instead of puttingit under the rule of
an external meaning open to "consumption"either throughprag-
matic use or emotional identification.
Mallarme developed his poetics of negationstep by step out of
a substantialistphilosophyor even a mysticismof negativitywhich,
as testifiedby his early letters,led him into fantasticmetaphysical
speculations. The inaugurationof linguisticsmust thereforehave
been trulyliberatingfor Mallarme, allowinghim to apprehendthe
linguisticfoundationsof his philosophical'myths'and consequently
give them a completelydifferentmeaning. "le redeviens un lit-
terateur pur et simple. Mon cauvre n'est plus un mythe."14 This
sentencein a letterto Henri Cazalis, who from1866 onwardshad
witnessed,as correspondent,his strugglewith the idea of Nothing,
marks an end as well as a beginning.No longer a prophetbut a
poet, Mallarme starts to work out possibilitiesfor a poetics of
negation. "Prose pour des Esseintes" is among the earliest and
most importanttestimoniesof such a new poetics. In this poem,
which criticismsoon realized to be on the vergeof Mallarme's new
poetry,the replacementof traditionalpoetics and the conquest of
a new dimensionin poetical fictionare made the subject of poetry
itself.15

II

Although the semantic configurationof "Prose pour des Es-

seintes" may be almost inaccessible in some places, the thematic

14 Propos, p. 107.
15 Mallarme's idea of fictionis an extremerealization of a tendency
implicitin the concept of fictionitself.Thereforehis reflectionsare not
only importantfor his own poems but also for a discussion of general
attitudestowards fiction.See K. Stierle,op. cit.

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centerof the poem seems easy to discoverand to isolate frompoetic

modificationssurroundingit in layers of ever-wideningcontexts.16
The poem is focusedthematicallyon what seems a detachablestory
of its own: In an undeterminedbut rather distant past, on an
island-or in view of an island?-the poet and his female com-
panion undergothe extraordinary experienceof some immeasurably
large flowerssurroundedby aureoles and recognized by him as
"iridees." Such a story of subjective experiencetranscendingthe
normalis not unusual as a topic of lyricalpoetryin the contextof
European romanticism.It would not be difficult to finda multitude
of literaryparallels. The way, however,in which Mallarme deals
with this topic and, in its articulation,develops a new concept of
poetryis new and utterlyunusual. Firstof all, the storyof subjective
experienceis not just givenas such, but is exposed to doubt by its
particularrealization in language. The "parole" of lyrical "I," in
view of such unusual and precarious experience,attains dramatic
quality.The momentsof greatestdramaticintensityeithercoincide
with the momentsof explicitnegationwhere the "esprit de litige"
manifests itself, or are reached when, in spite of its intrinsic
transcendenceof the real, the experienceof the ideal flowersis con-
jured up as reality.
Subjectivityholdingits own against the limitationsof objective
reality is another modificationof this predominanttheme in
romanticpoetry.Still all this is not sufficientto grasp Mallarme's
poem at the core. It can even be shownthat such romantictopicality
provides the starting-pointfor its own dissolution in the poem
which therebyattains its veryown dimension.To prove this thesis,
we must undertakea close interpretation of the poem, puttingthe
emphasis on its special poetic articulation.We must inquire into
the role of lyricalsubjectivityas well as into the changes undergone
by the concept of poetic negationin the process of the poem itself;
we must describe the way in which this poem paradigmatically

16 The followinginterpretation
is based on the definitivetext of Prose
as printedin the (Euvres completes. We have not discussed the earlier
version published by Mondor in 1954, because it does not add any es-
sentiallynew perspectivesto our interpretation.

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Karlheinz Stierle

overcomes the romantic conception of lyrical subjectivityand

reaches a new conception of auto-reflective
fiction,in which sub-
jectivityand negationreceive new functionalmeaning.
In 10 stanzas, the storyof a past experienceand the conflictof
position and negation are developed. The thematicunity of these
stanzas is preceded and succeeded by two stanzas each, the
perspectivesof which give a new poetical dimensionto the long
middle part. Only if the contextual conditionsestablishedby the
opening and the closing stanzas are realized, may the poem and
its new poetics, which break the traditionof romanticpoetry,be
understood.
The firsttwo stanzas, which open up the horizonforthe poem,
forma strangecontradictionwhich cannot be resolvedby the first
reading. The exclamation "Hyperbole!" starts off the invocation
of the firststanza in emphatictone. From the remembranceof the
"I" speaking the "hyperbole" is asked to rise triumphantly-an
experience whose only distinguishingtrait is to exceed the usual
and the expected. This firstsentenceis already a formalnegation,
serving,however,to intensifythe gestureof invocation.The myste-
rious identity,stressedby the rhyme,of "memoire"and "grimoire,"
of a psychicabilityof the speakingsubject and the concretegiven-
ness of the old book mountedin iron,remainsunsolvedin this first
stanza. We shall call this device of position without immediate
semantic solubility"semantic suspense" in correspondenceto the
poetic formof syntacticsuspense.
The second stanza breaks the hightone of invocation.The magic
of invocation is no longer sustained but a causal relationis estab-
lished which remains uncertain,because the reason provided may
be a reason eitherfor the formof invocationor forthe mysterious
identityof "memoire" and "grimoire"established in it. If in the
firststanza the evocationwas expectedsomewhatlike a spontaneous
eruption,evocation now, as a reversalof the subject-objectrelation
of the firststanza, appears as the resultof patientwork by the "I"
itself,which at firstseemed to be only the scene of the poetic
event. Hyperbole and science, triumphaloccurrence and patient

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work now forma new mysteriousrelationwhich refersback to the

equally mysteriousidentityof stanza one; the identityof "my
memory"and the old book now appears as relationbetween"my pa-
tience" and the thingsupon which its activityis turned: "Atlas,
herbierset rituels."Thus the semanticsuspense of stanza 1 is ex-
panded into a wider semantic suspense between firstand second
stanza. In the thirdstanza begins what must be regardedeitheras
the hyperboletriumphantly breakingforthfrommemory,or as the
patientworkof an "I" familiarwithpoeticalproduction.The change
in perspectivecausing the break beforestanza 3 is made apparent
firstby the change in tense to the imparfaitstartingthe narrative
sequence of the followingstanza,and secondlyby the shiftfrom"I"
to "We," fromlonely invocationof a memoryor workingout of a
thematicsequence to the common meditationof a beautifulland-
scape by the "I" and his companion.Nothingin this verse would as
yet justifythe term"hyperbole"chosen in the beginning.The rein-
forcementinherentin "je le maintiens"hintsat a doubt about what
was said, insinuatesthat position mightbe threatenedby negation.
In this context it seems to be nothingelse than another formof
semantic suspense, when in "Nous fufmesdeux, je le maintiens"
the unusual passe simple contractstime into a single moment.
The motifof doubt appears explicitlyin the followingstanza and
leads, in stanza 5, into a negation imposed from outside by an
indeterminate subject and imbeddedin the contextof an affirmation
intensifying in tone. With a "oui" set offemphaticallyagainst the
negationof the precedingstanza, stanza 6 starts as an affirmative
confrontation of "vue" against "vision,"and gives a new profileto
what was firstonly called "paysage," then "sol de cent iris," by
specifying "sol" as "ile" and by stressingthe flowers'qualityof being
"plus large,"thus turningback explicitlyto the theme of hyperbole
for the firsttime.
The negation "sans que nous en devisions" is given a different
perspectivefromthe one in the previousstanza. The flowerscause
an experience beyond the everydaycommunicationof "deviser."
What in the beginningseemed to be just a more or less normal

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Karlheinz Stierle

experienceof landscape,undergoesan increasinglyintensivechange.

The flowersfirstset off as "plus larges" only, now appear "im-
menses" and at the same time surrounded"d'un lucide contour,"
a sign of the marvellousand the unusual. At this point occurs an
enigmatic implicit negation which seems to be contraryto the
status of reality just established for the experience described:
the flowersare dividedfromthe gardensby theirluminouscontours.
This correspondsto a strikingusage of the passe simple in two
places where the imparfaitwould be expected,which is givenaddi-
tional emphasis because the two words forma rhyme:

Telles, immenses,que chacune

Ordinairementse para
D'un lucide contour,lacune,
Qui des jardins le separa.

Stanza 9, the climax of the poem, captures the moment of

exaltation of the lyrical "I," when the apparitionof the "iridees"
is revealed as the apparitionof theirveryidea. This at least would
have to be the appreciation possible in referentialreading, a
perspective which we shall try to maintain as long as possible,
followingthe apparentintentionof the text expressedin referential
affirmation. If stanza 8 with its experienceof the ideal flowerswas
associated directlywith the "moi" leavingthe unityof the "nous,"
the followingstanza relates to the second person,the companion,
whose behavior is in contrast to the exaltation of the preceding
stanza, just as the hymnicexaltationof the beginningwas curbed
by a change in perspectiveand in the emotive context.The whole
stanza, which appears as a contrastthroughthe opening "mais,"
is marked by the serene ironywith which the previouslydescribed
extreme experienceof the ideal is broughtback to normal:

Mais cette seur sensdeet tendre

Ne porta son regardplus loin
Que sourire et comme a l'entendre
J'occupemon antique soin.

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Here, too, the use of passe simple is importantin a place wherewe

should expect the imparfait.The followingstanza (10) starts by
leadingback fromthe experiencerememberedto the presentspeech
situation of the lyrical "I". "Esprit de litige" names that subject
of negationagainst which affirmation and the referentialreadingit
implies make an emphatic stand. The sentence beginningin this
stanza reaches to the end of stanza 12 and once again culminates
in a negation which ends an extremelycomplicated and opaque
syntacticalconstruction.The affirmation"Que de lis multiplesla
tige/Grandissait trop pour nos raisons" in stanza 10 emphasizesthe
momentof inconceivabilityinherentin the experienceand thus as
affirmationcontains a tinge of the negative. The affirmationis
followedin stanzas 11 and 12 by the negationof a negation: "Et
non comme pleure la rive." "La rive," the shore, furtherinstance
of the "esprit de litige,"whose sound seems to bringthe distance
near to the spectatorwhile, on the other hand, the recedingflood
negates the land of past experience,seems to be identicalwith the
formerplace of contemplation.This puts a different lighton what
wentbefore.It is not the walk across a miraculouslybeautifulisland
which is remembered,but the view of an island or even more
preciselythe view of scintillatinglightson the horizonwhich,seen
throughthe eyes of the spectator,turns into a phantasmagoriaof
the ideal island of flowers.All this,however,is thereonlyimplicitly,
and accessible only to those readers who, maybe from "L'apres-
midi d'un faune," know beforehandhow in subjective view the
stirringshapelessnessof middaylightcondenses into figures,which
are at the same timeexposed to "doute," and thus oscillatebetween
being and non-being,between position and negationof such posi-
tion. Once again the use of the passe simple indicatesthe intrusion
of possible negationinto position. If instead of the expected "que
ce pays n'existe pas" we find the finiteand unique past tense of
"que ce pays n'exista pas," this substitutionimplies that in the
spectator's present situation the realityto which the recollection
refersis no longerthere.Thus, the hint at confirmation through"le

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ciel et la carte" is deceptive, for they would only confirmthe

spectator'sposition,not his experience.
The followingstanzas 13 and 14 provide the key to this poem
and at the same time establish the absolute necessityof a second
reading which alone can make the essential meaning of the text
accessible.17 The interpretation will prove that the play with refer-
ences is ironicallyrefractedand that the poem attains its definite
meaningonly throughits own "revocation."
The two closing stanzas are as enigmaticat firstsight as they
are essentialto any understandingof the radicallynew poeticsfrom
which this poem springs,and which can only become apparent if
Mallarme's own theoreticalreflectionsare turnedto account. The
firstline of stanza 13, "l'enfantabdique son extase," already estab-
lishes a semanticsuspense whose dissolutionis the crucialpointfor
a properunderstandingof the poem. It is surprisingthat Mallarme
criticismup to now has completelydisregardedthe explicit con-
tradictionof this line and stanza 9, where the exaltation of the
lyrical"I" was contrastedwith his companion'scircumspection:

Mais cette sceur sensee et tendre

Ne porta son regard plus loin
Que sourire et, comme a l'entendre
J'occupe mon antique soin.

If this contradictionis to be resolved,we are confrontedwith a

question evaded up to now: who is the sisterjoiningthe lyrical"I"
in his experience? If we take Mallarme's own idea of poetry
seriouslyand do not try to revoke it by means of an extenuating
manyof the attemptsat primarilyepisodic interpreta-
interpretation,
tion proposed up to now mustbe rejected.18 She cannot be just any
companion who joins in the poetic experiencepar excellence; nor

17 The horizon of second readingis discussed in Stierle,op. cit.

18 Againstall attemptsto give a possible episodic answerto the question
"who is the sister?" it must be argued that they are in contradictionto
Mallarmes own poetics,which aim at eliminatingall episodic referentiality.
That poetry itself is meant in the allegorical companion may be seen
especiallyfromthe comparisonwith the "charmes"of the landscape which
are plainlyto be taken as emblemsof poetry.

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can she be a psychologicalallegoremof the poet's "I" itself; but

in Mallarme's perspectiveshe can onlybe "la poesie," the veryidea
of poetrywhichtakes allegoricalshape as "sc-ur."This is the condi-
tion under which the verse can show its ironical ambiguity,that
is, if "extase" is taken in its originalmeaningof a state of being
beyond oneself. For poetry, according to Mallarme, this means
referentialillusion. The revocationof referentialillusion and con-
sequentlythe returnof poetryinto its own rightsfromthe state
of alienation is the topic of the two final stanzas. What is the
consequence of such poetic reversal from referentialillusion to
the autoreferentialityof fiction,when the companion-enfant,sour,
and at the same time the allegoryof poetry-pronouncesthe word
"Anastase" which is said to be "ne pour d'eternelsparchemins"?
In order to understand what constitutes this new semantic
suspense,we must returnto the verybeginningof the poem, which
is suggested thematicallyby the relation between "grimoire"and
"eternels parchemins."Does not our comprehensionof the begin-
ning urge a connectionof "Anastase" with one of those books on
which the poet tried his patience; could it not be a word which
suddenlyconfrontedhim in his readingwith its special and isolated
meaning,takingthe poet away fromthe predeterminedcontext of
his reading into an imaginarymovementwhich between emerging
from and leading back into the established text comprised the
whole span of the poem? The word "Anastase" is part of an alien
text belonging to the ancient past of Byzantine religion,of the
"grimoiredans un livre de fervetu." The contextto be substituted
here is that of the reading "I" who isolates the word "Anastase"
fromthe text it is reading,yields to its power of association,and
finallyreturnsto the given text. It is more than accidental that
the word "Anastase" is the Greek word for the Christianidea of
resurrection.This word itselfcauses a kind of poetic resurrection
in that it startsa movementof association in the poetical imagina-
tion. The resurrectionof the word is at the same time its trans-
positioninto the realm of aesthetics,its regenerationin the context

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of fiction which, for Mallarm', no longer knows any external

relationand accordinglyno referentialillusion.
It may seem rather far-fetchedto dissolve the semantic sus-
pense 19with regardto an extremelymatter-of-fact initial situation
presupposed by the poem. This interpretation, however,opens up
an essential configuration of Mallarme's poetics,which can be real-
ized when the situation only implicithere is seen in connection
with anotherpoem which has hardlyever been broughtinto rela-
tion with "Prose pour des Esseintes,"but which can providea key
to this poem. The situation only implicithere of the poet inter-
ruptinghis readingto isolate a word fromits context,build a new
poetic context to go along with it and finallylead back into the
originalcontext,is the explicitsubject of the poem "Mes bouquins
renfermessur le nom de Paphos." 20 "Le nom de Paphos" like "le
mot: Anastase" is a key word for a new text to evolve out of the
giventext,which is then reducedto a minimalreferential remainder
and serves as starting-point for the autonomous language-directed
evolution of the poetical sequence of fiction. Thus the word
"Paphos" as well as "Anastase" are examples of that "isolement
de la parole" 21 which constitutesthe special achievementof poetic
transposition.It is through this "isolement" that the word is
steeped into a "new atmosphere"withouthowever destroyingits
primarycontext.In both poems, Mallarme chooses as the moment
of the poem "cette heure de reveriequi suit la lecture,quand un
livre different, presquc toujours, se substitue,meme 'a celui qu'on
admire."2 It is not the unpredictablemovementof the "reverie"

19 The solution of semantic as well as of syntactic suspense however

can never be accomplished entirely. Although Mallarmd always seems to
suggest one solution as privileged, this is rarely the only possible one. See
on the possibility to dissolve semantic and syntactic suspense K. Stierle,
"Moglichkeiten des dunklen Stils in den Anfangen der modernen Lyrik
in Frankreich" in W. Iser (ed.), Immanente A-sthetik- dsthetische Reflexion,
Poetik und Hermeneutik, vol. II, Munich, 1966, esp. pp. 168-182.
20 "Mes bouquins renfermes sur le nom de Paphos" which provides a
pattern of interpretation for Prose, is no longer subject to the tension of
position and negation. There, the new poetics of negation, realized for the
first time as process in Prose, is presupposed as basis for the movement
of poetic association, set off in reading.
21 (E3uvres completes, p. 368.
22 Letter to Huysmans from May 18, 1884, in Propos, p. 132.

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itself,however,which is the subject, but its organizationin lan-

guage; this becomes evident in the phrase "Et docte deja par
chemins."There is an obvious pun on "par chemins" which hints
once more at the new, nonreferential poetics behind this poem:
the syntagma"Par chemins" hides the Greek "methodos" which
refersto the interrelationbetween method and fictionparticularly
reflectedin Mallarme,and detailed furtherin one of the 1869 notes
towardsa theoryof languagewhichwe have alreadymentioned:

Toute m6thodeest une fiction,et bonne pour la demonstration.

de la fiction:il suivra la methode

Le langagelui est apparu 1'instrument
Enfinla fictionlui semble 8tre
du langage... Le langage se reflechissant.
le proc6d6 meme de 1'esprithumain-c'est elle qui met en jeu toute
mdthode,et l'hommeest r6duit'a la volont6. (p. 851)

With stanza 13 all the priorconditionsare fulfilledfor the last

stanza to realize Mallarme's new poetics as a poetics of negation.
The finalstanza containsa maximumof explicitand implicitnega-
tion comprisingeverythingestablishedpositivelyup to there.Only
now the name of the companion-la swur, l'enfant-is given:
Pulcherie, disclosingat the same time her allegorical nature. But
this namingis connectedwith the transpositionof the named into
the absence of death; which is preceded by Pulcheriepronouncing
the name "Anastase" in the transitionfrom being to non-being
indicated by the constructionwith "avant que." The followingis
embedded in temporal irrealityestablished by the negation of
the verb: "Avant qu'un sepulcre ne rie." At the same time, the
presence of the sepulchretestifying to the absence of Pulcherie is
negatedagain, transposedinto absence. The tomb is withoutplace;
it lies "sous aucun climat." This very placelessness, however, to
which we shall returnlater, is the poetic conditionof the poem's
presence. The precedingcontext as a whole is tied to this funda-
mental negation,for the sepulchre,situated nowhere,"sous aucun
climat,"is at the same time bound to a place which thus becomes
placeless itself.Its place is that island on the realityof which the
poem firstinsisted with such emphasis and which now appears in

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the ideal placelessness of negation. What was position firstnow

reappearsas negation.The immensegladioluswhichhides the name
"Pulcherie" and thus negates it once more, takes part in the ideal
placelessness of the island. Its hyperbolicquality,at firstdramat-
ically affirmedas real, turns into a formof negationin this new
context: "Cache par le trop grand glaieul." Only now, in this last
stanza, does negation take over the functionwhich Mallarme's
poetics, based on the philosophy of language, first explicitly
attributedto it: to be the very idea of fictionitself. This is a
complete change from its usual function.What is negated is no
longer a pragmaticallydenied possibilitybut is given a new func-
tional dimensionwith a phenomenologicalstatus of its own, which
for Mallarme becomes the very scene of poetry as fiction.Thus
negationis no longer some formof oppositionfromoutside which
must be emphaticallyrejected; it turns into the proper place for
a poetic experiencewhich is inextricablylinked to its realization
in language. The negativityof this last stanza reflectseverything
established affirmatively beforehand,and thus is the essence and
the apogee of the whole process of the poem. This fulfillmentat the
same time overcomes lyrical subjectivity.The two final stanzas,
where a new usage of negationis firstpreparedand then realized,
are freefromany lyricalsubjectivity.The lyricalsubject is reduced
to its functionalvalue as a medium of organization for poetic
experience,situated in the nowhereof language.While the subjec-
tivityof the lyrical "I" is suspended by the objective structureof
linguistic configuration,the affirmationsgiven in the poem are
suspended by negation. If in this context negation is realized as
suspension and not as annihilation,this is a result of Mallarme's
revaluationof negation as a fundamentalresort of poeticity.The
only thing finallyleft as position not exposed to negation is the
minuteimpulse fromoutside which marks the point of transition
fromthe real to the poetic world as a point of a more or less indif-
ferent"factual minimum."We have seen that the factualminimum
of this poem was the word froman old book which retainedthe
gaze of the reader who then gave way to the motionof association

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startedby the word itselfand poeticallyarticulatedin the medium

of negation.It is one of the constantsof Mallarme's later poetryto
develop the poem out of such a factualminimumand thus to steep
it into an "atmosphereneuve."23
Mallarme's "Prose pour des Esseintes" paradigmaticallyrealizes
in its process Mallarme's new concept of poetic fictionas "ceuvre
pure": "L'euvre pure implique la disparitionelocutoire du poete,
qui cede l'initiativeaux mots, par le heurt de leur inegalitemobi-
lises; ils s'allument de refletsreciproques comme une virtuelle
traineede feux sur des pierreries,remplagantla respirationpercep-
tible de l'ancien soufflelyrique ou la directionpersonnelleenthou-
siaste de la phrase" (p. 366). The firstreadingopens up the horizon
for a gradual perceptionof the "disparitionelocutoire du poete"
and of the inaugurationof a new poetics. Afterthe two finalverses
have revealed the new poetics of negationas the crucial point of
the poem, a second reading under the conditions of these new
poetics becomes possible. Only then those formsof semantic sus-
pense can be dissolvedwhich remainedinsolublein the perspective
of a firstreading.The connectionbetween beginningand end and
withit the necessityof a second readingreflecting the poem in itself
form part of the poem almost like a program.If the naming of
"Anastase" seems to be the very aim of the poem, at the same
time it is the startingpoint which determinesthe invocationof the
introductorystanza but which must remain undiscoveredas such
in a firstreading. To the final point of "Anastase" corresponds
etymologically the "hyperbole... ne sais-tute lever". The poem no
longer discloses subjective experience under the rule of referen-
tiality,but develops a transsubjectiveassociative process set offby
polysemanticcontent of words. The poet "cede l'initiative aux

23 The most extreme instanceof thisprocedurecan be foundin the

poem"A la nue accablante."Whenthe syntactic and semanticobstacles
of this poem are overcome,two systemsof proposition linkedby "ou
cela" becomeapparent, the one metaphorically interpreting
the other.Here
the factualminimum of the poemis givenas the singlewhitehairof his
mistress:"le si blanccheveu."Thereby, an allegoryof shipwreck is evoked
whosepointof reference is the "shipwreck"of youthmanifest in thefirst
whitehair.

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mots." Startingfrom the word "Anastase" with its rich potential

of associations,a semantic context opens up which may be taken
as "generationde texte," as a generationof text already in the
sense of JeanRicardou's poetics of the "nouveau nouveau roman."24
Freed of its original context,the word "Anastase" as factual
minimumbecomes the startingpointfora poetic motionin negative
mode. "Anastase" is related to "Pulcherie"by a semanticplay with
words. Both names evoke a vague Byzantineline of isotopic rela-
tion,for"Anastase" as well as "Pulcherie" designateeminentrulers
of ancient Byzantium.On this isotopic relation between the two
names is based a second interrelationconcerningthe semanticcon-
tent of the names: "Anastase," referringback upon itselfas impulse
forthe poetic notion of the "rebirthof the word,"leads over to the
semantic content of the word "Pulcherie,"which indicates a pure
sphere of the aesthetic as the aim of poetic transposition.This
relation of the two final stanzas is the implicitcontext for the
beginningof the poem. The word "Anastase" reappearsin the ex-
pression "ne sais-tu le lever." The rise of the hyperbole,i.e. the
transcendingof realityin language,takes place where remembrance
and the old book mergeinto one. This happensbecause the poetical
movementno longer, as it seemed in the firstplace, starts with
a subjective remembranceof the lyrical"I," but with the objective
fixationof remembrancein the "livre." The basis for this motion
of the poem is no longer any experienceof realityitself,but the
schemes of experience present in language. Thus the lyrical "I"
does not experiencethe real world,but its linguisticappropriation
in "Atlas, herbiers et rituels." From the verbal world of "Atlas,
herbierset rituels" springsthe world of the poem as a sphere of
negation.The idea of this non-subjectivepoetical process appears
in the poem as the allegorical "sceur,"whose charm is compared
to that of the landscape. What followsand what in the perspective
of a firstreadingappeared as subjective experience,now turnsout

24 On Ricardou's theory of the "generationde textes" see Pour une

the'oriedu nouveau roman, Paris, 1971. Among those who inspired the
latest nouveau roman,Mallarmdwith his poetics of "fiction"is probably
the most essential.

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to be nothingelse but the metaphoricalequivalent of poetryitself:

Nous promenionsnotrevisage
(Nous fumesdeux, je le maintiens)
Sur maintscharmesde paysage,
0 scour,y comparantles tiens.

Poetry is symbolizedas floweraccordingto a topos reachingback

to antiquity,and at the same time as island. In Mallarme's poetics
of autoreferentiality,the image of the island even more so than
that of the flower itself is the new metaphor which has left
referentialillusion behind.25 Again and again in his theoretical
reflectionsMallarme talks of the "isolement de la parole" as the
essential poetical task. It is this poetic "isolement" present in
the image of the miraculous island which for Mallarme qualifies
fictionand at the same time gives a new sense to the form of
negation.As the island is separated fromthe mainland and forms
a closed world of its own, the flowersof this island are once more
separated from the real gardens by their aureoles, which appear
as "lacune." It is this isolation from referentiality which endows
the word with a hyperbolic poetical quality present in the immense
size of the flowers,which transcends all possible experience. In
the followingstanza 8, the autoreferentiality of the poetical use
of language in fictionis made evident once more-for, solely on
account of the fact that in the word "iridee" itself the unity of
flowerand language is apparent,the name of this floweris chosen
as centerof the referentialcontext.
The initial word "Anastase" and its primaryassociation with
"Pulcherie" produced the idea of poetry,which then found meta-
phoricalrealizationin the centralinterrelation of island and flowers.
The pseudoreferentiality establishedfor the island, the flowers,and
finallyfor the word "Anastase" itself,on the other hand, is part
of the conceptual world preestablishedin writtenlanguage and
specifiedas "atlas, herbierset rituels." "Installer" here means to

25 The relatedness of 'le and isoler and with it the

essential poetic
meaning of the island were firsthinted at by Austin. See "Du nouveau
sur la 'Prose pour des Esseintes'," p. 97 f.

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enlarge,in the mediumof negation,the world capturedin language

withthe help of languageitself.Thus an island "sous aucun climat"
is added to the "atlas," and a floweris added to the "herbiers"
whose name "iridee" only accidentallycoincides with a name in
the existing "herbiers" and whose poetical absence is manifested
in languageas the "trop grandglaieul." And finally,underthe "iso-
lement de la parole," a transformation takes place with the help
of the "rituel" which is quite differentfrom what the "rituel"
originallyintended,withouthowever destroyingthe contextof the
"rituel" itself.Thus the word "Anastase," as part of the "rituel"
fromwhich a poetic transformation in the mode of negationtook
its start,is regainedat the end of the poem. This second and new
reading of the poem, which could be detailed further,is not pos-
sible unless the conflictof position and negation has been gone
throughin a firstreading.We have shown how this conflictfinds
its only solution in Mallarme's new poetics of negationas fiction.
What gives particularimportanceto "Prose pour des Esseintes"
is the way in which this poem dramaticallycorrelatestwo different
poetics: a poetics of romanticsubjectivityand a new one of fictional
autoreferentiality.With this poem, Mallarme raised a monument
to the discovery of his own poetics. The poems that follow are
mainlyarticulationsof the scope of negationwhichMallarme open-
ed up explicitlyand finallyin "Prose pour des Esseintes."

Translated by Sibylle Kisro

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