Synopses & Reviews
The only collection of Yves Bonnefoy's criticism in English, this volume offers a coherent statement of poetic philosophy and intent—a clear expression of the values and convictions of the French poet whom many critics regard as the most important and influential of our time. The Introduction touches on many of the essays' concerns, including Bonnefoy's recourse to moral and religious categories, his particular use of Saussure's distinction between langue and parole, his early fascination with Surrealism, and his view of translation as "a metaphysical and moral experiment." The essays, published over a nearly thirty-year span, respond to one another, the more recent pieces taking up for renewed consideration ideas developed in earlier meditations, thereby providing the volume with integrity and completeness. Among the subjects addressed in these essays are the French poetic tradition, the art of translation, and the works of Shakespeare, of which Bonnefoy is the preeminent French translator.
About the Author
Yves Bonnefoy is a poet, critic, and professor emeritus of comparative poetics at the Collège de France. In addition to poetry and literary criticism, he has published numerous works of art history and translated into French several of Shakespeare's plays.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Joseph Frank
Introduction by John T. Naughton
1. Words and Speech in The Song of Roland
(John T. Naughton)
2. Shakespeare and the French Poet
(trans. for Encounter, 1962; rev. by John T. Naughton)
3. Shakespeare's Uneasiness
(Jean Stewart)
4. Readiness, Ripeness: Hamlet, Lear
(John T. Naughton)
5. Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal
(Richard Pevear)
6. Baudelaire Speaks to Mallarmé
(Jean Stewart and John T. Naughton)
7. Madame Rimbaud
(Jean Stewart)
8. Paul Valéry
(Richard Pevear)
9. The Act and the Place of Poetry
(Jean Stewart and John T. Naughton)
10. French Poetry and the Principle of Identity
(Richard Stamelman)
11. Translating Poetry
(John Alexander and Clive Wilmer)
12. The Origins and Development of My Concept of Poetry: An Interview with John E. Jackson (1976)
(John T. Naughton)
13. "Image and Presence": Inaugural Address at the Collège de France
(John T. Naughton)