Metáforas de la conciencia en M.pdf

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1/20

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Metaphors of Consciousness in MallarmeAuthor(s): Ramn SaldvarSource: Comparative Literature, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Winter, 1984), pp. 54-72Published by: Duke University Presson behalf of the University of OregonStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1770328.

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2/20

RAMON

SALDIVAR

etaphors

o

onsciousness

n

Mallarm

T

HE

FULL

range

of

experiments

with

the elements

of

poetry

that

Stephane

Mallarme'

undertakes

in

Un

Coup

de

des

is

already

found

in

"Soupir"

(April

1864)

and

the

"Scene" of Herodiade

(Octo-

ber

1864).1

These

early poems

demonstrate

Mallarme's

complex

am-

bitions to

compose

in

language

the

fiction

of stable

subjectivity.

With

the calculated

irony

he

was to

employ

with

sure

effect

in

such

later

texts

as Crise de

vers,

in

a

letter of

October

1,864 to Henri

Cazalis

Mallarme'

announced that he had

"enfin commence

mon

Herodiade.

Avec

terreur,

car

j'invente

une

langue qui

doit

necessairement

jaillir

d'une

poetique

tres

nouvelle,

que

je

pourrais

definir

en

ces deux mots:

Peindre,

non

la

chose,

mais

l'effet qu'elle produit."2

A

few months

later

we

find

Mallarmi

completely engaged

in

what was to

become

a

lifelong

effort

to

formulate

this new

language:

"J'ai

pris

un

sujet effrayant,

dont les

sensations,

quand

elles

sont

vives,

sont

amenees

jusqu'a l'atroc-

ite,

et

...

ont

l'attitude

etrange

du

mystere" (C,

p.

161).

The

mystery

of

the words

he

was

writing

was no

less

an

effect

of

their

subject

than

of their

admitted aesthetic. On the

face

of

it,

one

could

hardly imagine

1

Albert

Thibaudet,

La

Podsie

de

Stephane

Mallarmd

(Paris,

1926), pp.

387-

88,

and

Charles

Mauron,

Introduction a

la

psychanalyse

de

Mallarmd

(Paris,

1950),

pp. 29-30,

note the

dates of

composition.

See

also Robert

G.

Cohn

(Toward

the

Poems

of Mallarme,

Berkeley, Calif.,

1965,

pp.

52,

86),

who

notes

that

the

"Scene"

was

begun

in

1864,

not

long

before

the

celebrated

metaphysical

crisis,

and

was

published separately

in

the

Parnasse

Contemporain

in

1871.

The

"Ouverture

ancienne" and the

"Cantique

de Saint

Jean"

were

already

written but were to

be

reworked. Gardner

Davies

has collected and reconstructed the known

fragments

in

his Noces

d'Herodiade:

Myst,'re

(Paris,

1955).

2

Correspondance

(1862-1871),

ed. Henri Mondor

(Paris,

1959),

p. 137;

here-

after

cited

in

the text as

C.

54

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3/20

MALLARMf

AND THE SELF

a more futile project than the attempt to representan object by evoking

the traces of its former

presence.

The

significance

of

Mallarme's

concern

with

the

"effect"

of

objects

has

been noted at

least since Mallarme's

own

statements

in

various

letters

concerning

his

implicit

aesthetics

have come to

light."

Statements

such as

the one

in a

letter

to

Eugene

Lefebure,

that

"je

n'ai

crfe

mon

oeuvre

que

par

elimination"

(C,

p. 245),4

support

the

contention

that

Mallarme's

creative

act

proceeds

reductively,

toward the essential

core

of

truth which

everyday language

can

only

suggest.

This fascination

with absence is precisely what motivates the creation of both "Soupir"

and

HIrodiade.

But

whereas

in

"Soupir"

the

allegory

of

desire

in

a

fictive

garden

seems

to

offer

language

as

the

privileged

mediator

be-

tween

the

present

self

and an

absent

other,

the "Scene" of

Herodiade

transforms those

same elements

into

vehicles

for the examination

of

the

very concept

of the self.

In

both

poems

a sexual

drama becomes a

ruse

for

the

telling

of

the

attempted

recuperation

of

the

self-consciously

fragmented subject. By examining

the

functioning

of

metaphors

related

to

consciousness

in

these

two

early poems,

we

can see how Mallarme

endeavors to accomplish the poetic project that was to preoccupy him

to the end of his life:

that

is,

the

attempt

to

integrate

from

the

radically

dispersed

elements of transient

personality

a vision of

an

organically

and

aesthetically

cohesive

self.

"Soupir"

is

one

of

the earliest

and

most

elegant

of

Mallarme's

au-

tumnal

reveries. It consists of

one sentence divided

into two distinct

sections of five

lines

each,

the second

of

which

is in

apposition

to the

first:

Mon ame

vers

ton front

oui

reve,

6

calme

soeur,

Un automne

onche

de taches de

rousseur,

Et

vers

le

ciel

errant

de ton oeil

angelique

Monte,

commedans

un

jardin

milancolique,

Fiddle,

un

blanc

jet

d'eau

soupire

vers

l'Azur

-Vers

l'Azur

attendri

d'Octobre

pale

et

pur

Qui

mire

aux

grands

bassins

sa

langueur

nfinie

Et

laisse,

sur

l'eau

morte

oPi

a

fauve

agonie

3 On

this

point

of

"self-creation" see the

informative work

by

A. R.

Chisholm,

"Mallarme's Dream of Self-Creation,"

A

UMLA, 38 (1972), 137-42; Yves Bonne-

foy,

"La

Poetique

de

Mallarme,"

Critique (Paris),

341

(1975),

1053-74

and "The

Poetics

of

Mallarme,"

YFS,

54

(1977),

9-21;

Neal

Oxenhandler,

"The

Quest

for

Pure Consciousness in Husserl and

Mallarme,"

in The

Quest

for

Imagination,

ed.

O.

B.

Hardison, Jr.

(Cleveland,

Ohio,

1971), pp. 149-66;

and

the

excellent

essay

by Jean Hippolyte,

"Le

Coup

de

des de

Stephane

Mallarme

et le

message," EP,

4

(1958),

463-76.

4

Malarme adds

: "La

destruction fut ma

Beatrice."

55



4/20

COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

Des feuilleserre au ventet creuse unfroidsillon,

Se trainer e

soleil

jaune

d'un

ong

rayon.5

Several

critics have

pointed

out

that the

suspension

of

the verb

"Monte"

until

the

beginning

of

the

fourth line

serves

to obscure

the

relatively

simple

grammatical

core

of the

poem.6

Beyond

this

syntactic

subterfuge,

however,

the

surface

structure of the initial

lines

is clear

enough:

"Mon

ame,"

the

specular

center of

the

poem,

is focused

on

"ton

front,"

a

synecdoche

for

the "calme

soeur."

The

second

line of the

poem,

how-

ever,

presents

a

major

obstacle to

our

attempt

to read

the

poem

as the

representation of a factual scene. The "automne jonche de taches de

rousseur" is said

to be

dreaming,

"vers ton front

ou'

reve

.

.

.

/

Un

automne,"

and

we

can

interpret

the

statement

to mean either

that the

"automne"

literally

dreams or that it

exists

like

a dream

in

the mind

of

the

poet's

"calme soeur."

Immediately

after

the

verb

"Monte,"

the

poem

sets

aside the

pre-

tense of historical

temporality

and enters

an

overtly

fictional

moment,

signaled

by

the

rhetorical

mode

of

the

phrase

"comme dans

un

jardin."

To

be

sure,

fiction

is the

context

of all

poetry,

but the

specific

fictional

character of the first three lines of "Soupir" is that they can be read as

the

representation

of a factual situation. Lines

four

and

five

are

no

longer

strictly

referential;

when

the

simile of

line four intrudes

into

the

narrative

of

the

initial

intersubjective

event,

it

instigates

a

second

nar-

rative

which

establishes its

story

explicitly

in

the

void

between

"mon

aime"

and

"ton front."

In

doing

so,

this

intruding

simile

prevents

the

story

about the

unification

of

self and nonself

from

being

told.

We

can

retain the notion

of

mimesis as

"representation"

only

by

acknowl-

edging

that

in

this text mimesis

serves

to

represent something

which

does not lend itself readily to imitation: a platonic synthesis of a lover

and his

beloved. While the

simile,

"comme

dans

un

jardin

m61ancoli-

que,"

seems

to

repeat innocently

the

historical

structure

of

the

first

three

lines,

it

negates

that structure

to create

an

imaginary

world

of

pure

consciousness, all the while

mirroring

the ecstatic

upsurge

of

de-

sire,

as the stream of white

water at

the

garden's

center

parallels

the

rising

motion of

the

poet's

soul:

"Fiddle,

un

blanc

jet

d'eau

soupire

vers

l'Azur

"

5

Stephane Mallarme,

Oeuzres

completes,

ed.

Henri

Mondor and

G.

Jean-

Aubry

(Paris, 1945), p.

39;

hereafter cited in the text

by

title and

page

number.

6

See,

for

instance,

the

illuminating

discussion of

Jean-Pierre

Richard in

L'Univers

imnaginaire

de

Mallarmd

(Paris,

1961), pp.

59-62.

Cohn notes

the

affinity

of the

metaphors

of

"Soupir"

to

those of the

main

current of

Mallarme's

aesthetics

(p. 63). Jonathan

Culler

includes

a

discussion

of

"Soupir"

as an

example

of his

proposed

Structuralist

Poetics

(London, 1975), pp.

173-74.

My

reading

locates

itself

initially among

these now traditional

readings,

but

in

postulating

the failure

of

reconciliation

proceeds

in

quite

another direction.

56



5/20

MALLARMR

AND THE

SELF

Just as Aristotle would have us believe that the spoken word is

simply

a

translation of

a

mental

experience,7 Mallarme's

persona

seems

to want us

to think

that the

language

before us

in the

poem

is

simply

an

emblem of a

state of mind. The

"Octobre

pale

et

pur"

and

the

"soleil

jaune"

of

the

second

half

of

the

poem acquire

an

apparently

authentic

existence

because of their

syntactic prominence,

even

though

they

are

merely

grammatical

appositives

to

an

initial simile.

In

their

apparently

complete

and

essential

proximity,

the

poetic

voice and the

garden

it

names seem to

coalesce. This illusion of

a natural and

unproblematic

translation between being on the one hand and mind on the other is

derived from

the rational

conception

of

the self

as

a

temporally

and

spatially

delimited

entity,

in

itself

an

example

of

the absolute

proximity

of

mind and

being.

We

can

thus detect in

the

poem

two distinct

attitudes

concerning

the

relationship

between consciousness

and

the

real world.

The first at-

tempts

to

represent

the

real

world

within

consciousness,

while

the

second,

which takes

precedence

in

the

poem, presents

the

world in an

immediate

relation

to

consciousness.

But

when

the

poet's

mimetic

imagination attempts to convert this feeling of immediacy into a sub-

jective

presence,

it

only

transforms the

nostalgia

for

wholeness,

which

does

not exist

objectively,

into

an

object

of

perception.

The discourse

that

is then to describe the

metaphoric

reconciliation

of self

and

other,

to

mediate their

difference,

produces

instead

a text

"about"

the

indif-

ferent

autonomy

of

the

azure

sky.

When,

with

the

repetition

of

"Vers

l'Azur"

in line

six,

the

poem

turns

away

from

the

articulating

voice

and

its

desire,

it

is as

if

the

poet

has

lost control of

his

fiction,

and the

poem

becomes

a

self-generated

apostrophe to "I'Azur," seeming to render the poet's presence super-

fluous.

By

line

ten,

the

initial

expression

of

a

desire

for

unity

between

"mon ame"

and

"ton oeil

angelique"

has been

thoroughly

displaced

and

transformed

by

the

figure

which

names

the

azure

sky.

Rather than

creating

a

sense of

unity,

the

poem

has turned

against

the

poetic per-

sona,

naming

now

the

opposite

of

his

desire

in

a

series

of

displacements

toward stasis.

The term

hypostasis,

used

by Jacques

Scherer

to

designate

the

privi-

leged grammatical categories

of the

noun

and

the

singular

form

in Mal-

larme's poetry, can lead us to some new perspectives concerning Mal-

larme's

notion of the

impersonal

self.8

Scherer

notes that

in

Aristotle

hypostasis

denotes substance

as

opposed

to

contingency,

force as

op-

7

Aristotle,

De

interpretatione,

in

The

Works

of

Aristotle,

ed. W. D. Ross

(Ox-

ford,

1928),

16a4-5:

"Spoken

words are

the

symbols

of mental

experience

and

written

words

are

the

symbols

of

spoken

words."

8

L'Expression

litteraire

dans l'oeuvre

de

Mallarmd

(Paris,

1947),

pp.

153-62.

57



6/20

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

posed to action. In Plotinus hypostases are the purest and most abstract

entities

by

which one

attains

Unity,

and in

contrast

to the

material

world

play

a role similar

to

that of the

Idea

in

the

Platonic

dialogues.

Finally,

in

Christian

theology

the

hypostases

are

the

Three Persons

distinguishable

within

the

Divine One.

All

of

these

uses

of the

word,

Scherer

notes,

share

the

value of an

abstract notion

to which

one

assigns

privileged

status

and

which

is the

metaphysical

origin

of

the

others.

For

Mallarme',

the

hypostasis

is

never

complete

in

the

metaphysical

sense;

its

meaning

arises

only by

opposition

to the

persisting

fragmentation

of

the material world. Thus Scherer is certainly correct when he claims

that "comme

le monde

primitif,

la

grammaire

de

Mallarme

est

bipo-

laire,"9

but the nature

of that

bipolarity

itself

always

remains

at issue.

Meaning

arises for Mallarme

within

a

system

of

hypostasized

opposi-

tions when the

poetic expression

is

able to

create

an

organizing

matrix

for what are

otherwise

only

self-negating

polar

differentials.

By

exten-

sion

then,

the

hypostasis

of the self is

a

possibility

of

the

fundamentally

aesthetic character of

the

human

imagination,

which seeks to

establish

an

original

source,

a

ground

for

unity.

And,

I would

argue,

the

mean-

ing of Mallarme's aesthetics of the self can be interpreted within this

systematic

framework of

oppositions

which

his

poems designate.

What seems

important

in

"Soupir"

then

is the

totality

and

the

sig-

nificance of the

attempted

reconciliation of

the

binary pair:

the

allegory

of failure

(the

rising

motion

supplanted by

the

fall)

must

be seen

in

terms of the

underlying

opposition

between

"Mon Ame" and

"le

ciel

errant

de ton oeil

ang6lique."

While the

poet

is

impelled

to

react

against

the

alluring

eye

by describing

its effects

on

him,

he

knows

beforehand

that his

description

can never

quite

attain

the

vigor

of the natural

object, and that he can never free himself from its determining impact.

The

fact that the

major

portion

of the

poem

is

specifically

in a

figural

mode,

attempting

to

deal with

the

initial

motion

toward the "calme

soeur,"

reflects

the

poet's

clear

consciousness of the

need

for mediation.

The

poem

creates its resonant word

to stand in

place

of the desired mute

proximity

between

"Mon

ame"

and "ton

front,"

and it is as

if

the

metaphors

of the

second

half

of

the

poem

offer

their

own

sensory

rich-

ness to

reconstitute

by

substitution

the

absent

other

they

cannot

replace.

Similarly,

the

poem

is condemned to exist

as

a

seductive,

but

per-

sistently suspended, intent toward meaning, as the written text lies

open

before us to

receive the seminal "blanc

jet

d'eau" of

conceptualized

meaning,

which

never

comes.

The

correlation

of

"ame,"

"l'azur,"

and

"soeur" is not

peculiar

to

"Soupir"

but is instead a

recurring

motif.

In

Symphonie

littiraire,

for

example,

Mallarm6,

writing

about

poetic

failure,

says:

9

Scherer,

p.

154.

58



7/20

MALLARMtR

AND THE SELF

Muse modernede l'Impuissance,quim'interdisdepuislongtemps e tresor familier

des

Rythmes,

et

me condamnes

(aimable supplice)

ta

ne

faire

plus que

relire,

.

ces

quelques ignes

de ma

vie

&crites

ans

les

heures

clkmentes

ofi

tu ne

m'inspiras

pas

la

haine

de

la

creation

et le

sterile

amour

du

neant.

Tu

y

decouvriras

les

jouissances

d'uneame

purement

passive

qui

n'est

que

femme

encore,

et

qui

demain

peut-etre

sera

bkte.

(Proses

de

Jeunesse,

p.261)

Later,

in a

translation

of

Poe's

"A

Ma

Mere,"

Mallarme notes

this

curious relation

among

"nmere,"

"ame,"

and

a

lover:

"Ma

Mere-ma

propre

mnre,

qui

mourut

tot n'etait

que

ma mere,

a

moi; mais

vous

etes

la

me~re

de

Celle

que

j'ai

si

cherement

aimee;

et

m'etes ainsi

plus

cheire

...

a

mon

atme, qu't

cette

lime

sa vie"

(PonFmes

d'Edgar

Poe,

p.

218).

Here and in

other

texts

we

see

not

only

that

"mere"

and

"soeur"

are

hidden

within

many

references to

"mon

ame" but also that

their

disguised

intervention

seems

to

signal

a certain

nostalgia

for

pure

beauty

and the

azure which is arrested

by

what the

poet

has

enigmati-

cally

termed

"l'Imnpuissance."'1

The

word

"soeur,"

too,

is

extremely

important

in

Mallarme's

texts.

In

Herodiade,

for

instance,

one can

find numerous formulations:

"Et

ta

soeur

solitaire,

6

ma

soeur

&ternelle, /

Mon

reve

montera

vers

toi"

(p. 48).

Here

"soeur"

is

apparently

a

celestial

object,

perhaps

a

solitary

star

or the

moon; moreover,

in

association

with the

cold,

virginal

soli-

tude

of the celestial

wastes,

the word

also

seems

to

acquire

ontic

status

as

a

sign

of the

feminine essence.

At

other

points

"soeur"

corresponds

to

the

poet's

own

self,

to the

feminine

principle

of

his

"~me,"

as,

for

instance,

when

Mallarme'

writes

in

Crayonne

au

thed re:

Que

souhaitaient-ils

donc

accomplir,

6 mon

ame?

repliquai-je

une

fois

et

toujours

interloque puis eludant la responsabilited'avoir conduit ici une si exquise dame

anormale:

car ce

n'est

pas elle,

siir

s'il

y

faut voir

une ame ou

bien notre

idfe

(a'

savoir

la

divinite

presente

a

l'esprit

de

l'homme)

qui

despotiquementproposa:

"Viens."

(p.

293)

The

youthful being

of

beauty

and

the

poet's

anima combine

in the

figure

of

the "soeur"

to

express

a

tenuous

association

between

the

poetic

con-

sciousness

and the

frightening

cosmos.

This relation

is

again pointed

out

in

Medaillons

et

portraits,

where

Mallarmn, writing

about

Villiers

de

l'Isle-Adam,

notes that

"la Muse

[n'est]

pas

autre

que

notre

propre

ame, divinisee " (p. 503). As das Weibliche, that which is the source

of

life,

"soeur," "ame,"

and "Muse"

thus often

join

to

represent

a

being

close to

the

rhythms

of

nature,

a

part

of

the

cosmic consciousness

which

the

poet only

partly

contains

within himself.

This ideal

woman's charms

are

ambiguously

his

own and those of

poetry,

but

in most cases the

poet

1o

Cf.

the

listings

of these

"image-clusters"

ited

in

Cohn, pp. 263-64, Appendix

B.

59



8/20

COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

remains suspended in the attempt to incorporate those rhythms into

his

own

being.

"L'Azur,"

on

the

other

hand,

appears

as

a

terrifying

and

haunting

vacuum

since

it

denotes

nothing

but

its

own

vast

blue

depths."1

Mal-

larme now

offers us

a

variation on

this

theme,

for in

"Soupir"

the

autumnal "azur

attendri

d'Octobre

pale

et

pur"

has

fallen from

its

summer of

power

and

possesses

only

a

"langueur

infinie."

Its

meager-

ness is marked

by

the

sickly

"jaune"

which

Mallarme'

uses

constantly

to

evoke the

feeling

of

decay

and

stagnation,

as

in

"les

plis jaunes

de

la pens6e" of the "Ouverture'' to Hdrodiade. Rather than exciting a

revival of

solar

light

and

energy

in

the azure

depths,

the

image

of

the

weak

"rayon" portends

the total

extinguishing

of

light

and

of

the sun

itself in the

"grands

bassins."

Nevertheless,

"I'Azur"

persists

as an

other

in

triangular

relation to

the

poetic

consciousness

and its

object

of

desire. The

ecstatic

surge

of one

soul toward the

angelic eye

of

another

is

repeated

in

the

figure

of

stationary

movement: the

"jet

d'eau" which

surges

toward

"l'azur"

but

falls

back

on itself

and remains

perpetually

suspended.

In

"Soupir"

"l'azur"

is

necessary

to

mirror the

ceremony

of love, necessary to aid the poet in imaginatively realizing his erotic

desire,

and

yet

the

trope

which

names

"l'azur"

fails to mediate

between

sensuality

and

a

distant ideal of

untouched

beauty,

instead

taking

con-

trol

of the

poem

and

turning

it

into

a

melancholy

meditation

on

fall and

decadence.

But

what,

one

might

ask,

is the

purpose

of the

poet's

utterance?

After

an allusion

to

nostalgia

or desire

for

an

ambiguous

feminine

presence,

the

poetic

voice

creates

a

metaphysical garden

in

which

the

reader is asked to follow

half-present rays

of

light

over still water.

In

recalling his desire for the feminine, the persona necessarily invokes

something

which

is not

and

cannot be

authentically present.

In

the

emptiness

of the

absence of

his

"soeur,"

and with

the

abdication

of

the

"soleil

jaune"

from the azure

sky,

the

poet's

soul rises

to

an

invocation

of his

memory

of them

in

an

attempt

to fill

the

void,

while still

realizing

the

impossibility

of that task.

In

Symphonie

litteraire,

a text

contempo-

raneous

with

"Soupir,"

Mallarmei

offers

one

possible

solution

to

the

problem

posed

in

"Soupir":

"Donc

je

n'ai

plus qu'a

me

taire,-non

11

See the

concluding

line of "L'Azur":

"Je

suis

hantd.

L'Azur

1'Azur

I'Azur

l'Azur

"

(Oeuvres, p.

39).

Mauron notes the

possible

association

of

the

haunting

azure

with "la

secrete

hantise" of the

poet's

dead sister Marie

(p. 38).

Henri

Mondor,

n

Vie

de

Mallarme,

again

speaks

of

the

azure

sky

as

a

haunting

spectre

which tortures

"l'Impuissant"

(Paris,

1946,

p. 105).

See also Emilie

Noulet,

L'Oeuvre

podtique

de

Stiphane

Mallarmd (Paris,

1940), p.

66,

and

the

dissenting opinion

of

Maurice Blanchot in both

Le Livre

venir

(Paris, 1959)

and

La

Part

du

feu

(Paris, 1949)

concerning

the

naivetei

of

reductive

critical

methods

which

try

to

gain

access to

Mallarme's

poetry by causally relating

it to

personal experience.

60



9/20

MALLARMi

AND THE SELF

que je me plaise dans une extase voisine de la passivite, mais parce que

la

voix

humaine est

ici une

erreur,

comme le

lac,

sous

l'immobile

azur

que

ne

tache

pas

meme la

blanche lune des matins

d'ete,

se

contente

de

la

refleter

avec

une

muette admiration

que

troublerait

brutalement un

murmure

de

ravissement"

(p.

262).12

"Soupir"

might

thus be

read as

an

allegorical

expression

of the

conflict between

a self

which

recognizes

its

temporal

and

metaphysical

constraints

and a rhetorical

strategy

which

attempts

to turn

away

from the

recognition

of its

inability

to

voice the

unification

of

self

and

other.

But

while

"Soupir"

only

leads

us up to the discovery that "la voix humaine est ici une erreur," and

that

consequently

it

can

only

reflect mediate

experience,

the later

poems

fully investigate

that

blank

space

of mute admiration

which

the

imper-

sonal human voice

creates. Desire

itself,

as intentional

structure,

is

superseded

there

by metaphoric

categories

which

attempt

to

lure

poetic

language

into

becoming

a

theatrical scene

of

mediation between

a

present

fictional

subject

and

its absent

object

of desire.

Having

realized

the limitations

of

poetic expression,

Mallarme' is now

ready

to come

to

Herodiade,

where

the

problematic categories

of self-creation

named

in

"Soupir" are incorporated and transformed, but still not strictly re-

solved.

That

Herodiade evokes

a

cult of

virginity,

the heroine's desire to

open

herself

before

temporality

while

simultaneously

longing

for static

purity,

is

suggested

by

the

images

reflected

in

the

mirrorlike

fountain

in

Herodiade's

garden

and

by

the

clusters of

precious

stones

which

adorn her

body:

Le

blond orrent de

mes

cheveux

immacule's

Quand

l

baigne

mon

corps

solitaire

le

glace

D'horreur,

t mes

cheveux

que

la lumiere enlace

Sont immortels.

O femme,

un baiser

me

tfirait

Si

la beaute'

n'eitait

a mort

...

Calme,

oi,

les

frissons de ta senile chair

...

Aide-moi,

puisqu'ainsi

u

n'oses

plus

me

voir,

A

me

peigner

nonchalamment ans un miroir.

(Herodiade,

p.

44)

The

thematic

association between

"HeIrodiade"

and

her

"miroir"

will

gradually

become

explicit,

but

here

in

our

first

glimpse

of

Herodiade,

she

acquires

metaphorically

the characteristics

of

the

sighing "jet

d'eau"

of

"Soupir."

Winter

has

begun

to

supplant

autumn,

and

"I'Azur

attendri d'Octobre

pile

et

pur"

has

been

transformed into

"la

lourde

prison

de

pierres

et de

fer."

The

categories

of

natural flux which

in

12

Written

in

Tournon,

April

1864.

61



10/20

COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

"Soupir" had formed the basis for the recognition of the problematic

status

of

the

self

before

nature

are

now

replaced

by metaphors

of con-

sciousness

and

temporality,

which

gradually

force

the

confrontation

of

self-understanding

before the

mirror.

Even Herodiade's

actions,

as

she

stands before the fountain

stripping petals

from

a

lily, prefigure

the

coming glimpse

of her

spiritual undressing.

And

finally,

as

in

"Soupir,"

the

self-reflection,

Herodiade's

melancholy

turn

toward

introspection,

occurs "Comme

pres

d'un

bassin

dont le

jet

d'eau

m'accueille." After

the

"reverie" of indolence

by

this

new

metaphoric

fountain,

Herodiade

approaches an even clearer reflecting surface and begins to comb her-

self

"nonchalamment dans

uni

miroir."

Leaving

nature-which has

evoked

feelings

of

separation,

distance,

and a

sense

of

futility

in

attempt-

ing

to

bridge

the

gap

between

self and other-we

now enter

a

scene

where the

activities

of

self-consciousness

and

self-creation

are more

explicitly

the

sources

of

anxiety:

Assez

Tiens

devant

moi

ce

miroir.

O

miroir

Eau roide

par

'ennui

ans

oncadre

elke

Quedefois etpendantesheures, eisolte

Des

songes

t

cherchant

mes

souvenirs

ui

sont

Comme

es

feuilles

ous

a

glace

au

trou

profond,

Je

m'apparus

n

toi comme ne

ombre

ointaine,

Mais,

horreur

des

soirs,

dans a

se'vere

ontaine,

J'ai

de mon

rive

e6pars

onnu

a

nudite

(Herodiade, . 45)

Although

the

mirror is

apostrophized,

it

is

the

image

within the

mirror

that is

the true focus of the scene.13 The

gushing

waters of the

earlier fountain have now been

frozen

("Eau

froide

par

I'ennui

dans ton

cadre

gelee")

by

the "ennui" of

her

wintry

existence.

Herodiade's

"souvenirs,"

which are

"Comme

des

feuilles sous ta

glace

au

trou

pro-

fond,"

and then even her

own

image,

"comme

une ombre

lointaine,"

penetrate

the

surface

of

the mirror

and

nearly

dissolve into

unrecog-

nizable forms.

In

her

rejection

of

everything

around

her,

from the

nurse's touch to

her

own

sensuality,

Herodiade thus focuses

only

on

herself

and

begins

to

constitute the conditions

of a

perfect

mental self-

exploration.

Stripping

herself

of

everything

that

distracts

her from

self-consciousness

in

order to

bring

about the

satisfaction

of

the desire

for

union with

what

in

"Soupir"

was

represented

alternately by

"soeur"

and

"l'azur,"

Herodiade

enters

into

ontic

regions

of self-effacement

13

An

early

textual

variant

expresses

this

spatial

bifurcation

even

more

ex-

plicitly:

"Mais

aussi,

des

soirs,

dans ta severe fontaine

/

Horreur, j'ai

contempld

ma

grande

nudite"

(Oeuvres, p.

1444).

For other

instances

of

the mirror

symbol

in

Mallarme's

poetry

see the

very

useful

essay

by

Austin

Gill,

"Le

symbole

du

miroir

dans

l'oeuvre

de

Mallarm',"

CAJEF,

9

(1959),

159-81.

62



11/20

MALLARMP AND THE SELF

and draws back in horror: "J'ai de mon reve epars connu la nudite "

But it is

an

alluring

horror

all

the

same,

and

the

vision of

"nudite"

causes her

to

remember

her

own

temporal

bouts

with

understanding.

In an

attempt

to substitute the

commonplace

concerns

of

physical

exis-

tence

for

the

universal,

ontological

horrors she

has

glimpsed

within

the

"severe

fontaine" of

self-reflection,

Herodiade

thus

asks,

"Nourrice,

suis-je

belle ?"

Almost

too

easily,

she invokes

the concerns of

physical

existence

to

veil

transcendent discoveries.

In

attempting

to

prove

her

purity,

Herodiade

succeeds,

therefore,

only

in

manifesting

the

uncer-

tainty of purity. It should of course be remarked that the drama of

introspection,

in

which

the succession of

exteriorities that

constitutes

an act

is

made

internal,

has been

represented

within the

theatrical

con-

text of the

scene,

and that

the

heroine of the

poem,

Herodiade,

is herself

an

artist,

the dancer

par

excellence.

In

Crayonni

au

theitre

(1886)

Mallarme' indicates that

Le

ballet ne donne

que

peu:

c'est le

genre

imaginatif. Quand

s'isole

pour

le

regard

un

signe

de

l'tparse

beaute'

ge'ne'rale,

leur,

onde,

nue'eet

bijou,

etc., si,

chez

nous,

le

moyen

exclusif

de le

savoir

consiste

a

en

juxtaposer

I'aspect

a

notre nudite

spirituelle afin qu'elle le sente analogue et se l'adapte dans quelque confusion

exquise

d'elle

avec

cette

forme

envolee-rien

qu'au

travers

du

rite,

aI,

enonce'

de

1'Idee,

est-ce

que

ne

parait

pas

la

danseuse

a

demi

1'el16ment

n

cause,

a demi

hu-

manite

apte

a

s'y

confondre,

dans

la

flottaison

de

reiverie?

L'ope'ration,

u

poesie,

par

excellence et

le

th'atre.

Immediatement

e ballet

resulte

alligorique.

(pp.

295-

96)

Herodiade's

present

"reverie,"

which

juxtaposes

the

particular

world

to

the

aspect

of

her

spiritual

nudity

within

the

reflection

of

the

mirror

("le

moyen

exclusif de le

savoir"),

is

a clear

prefiguration

of the

future

textual dance which will allegorize the consummation/violation of the

juncture

of

nature and

willed

consciousness,

as

"la

danseuse" becomes

"a

demi

l'element

en

cause."14

In

Crayonni

au

thd2atre

Mallarme

states

that

the self-reflective act

can be an

immobilizing

force which dissolves

the

self and

the world without

producing

a

sense of

unity

with

the

"souvenirs"

glimpsed

in

the mirror of

introspection.

The

parallels

with

Igitur

are

illuminating: "Igitur

comme

menace

par

le

supplice

d'8tre

eternel

qu'il

pressent vaguement,

se cherchant dans

la

glace

devenue

ennui et se

voyant

vague

et

preis

de

disparaitre

comme s'il

allait

s'eva-

nouir en le temps, puis s'evoquant; puis lorsque de tout cet ennui,

temps,

il

s'est

refait,

voyant

la

glace

horriblement nulle

...

Impuissant

de

l'ennui"

(Igitur,

p. 440).

Herodiade, too,

seems to vacillate before the

"liqueffaction

de miroirs"

(Quant

au

Livre,

p.

370),

succumbing

to the

"ennui"

which

makes

the

14

See

Carol

Baker,

"The

Dancer and the

Becoming

of

Language,"

YFS,

54

(1977),

173-87.

63



12/20


"Eau froide ... gelee" and makes Igitur "impuissant," but in Herodi-

ade,

as

in

"Soupir,"

the seductive

depths

of

the self-reflexive

moment

seem

to offer a virtual

ground

for

reattaining

a

former state

of

authentic

presence.

Unlike that of

Igitur,

Herodiade's

developing consciousness

is not

a

universal

moment

formalizing

the

growth

of

human

conscious-

ness

in

time,

but

rather

another

attempt

to

overcome

previous

failures

at

integration.1"

The

flight

from the

"horreur"

and the

"effrois"

produced by

the

gaze

into

the

frozen fountain is

intimately

related to Herodiade's

recognition

of her own insubstantiality."' Cravonn" au theitre is instructive once

more when Mallarme

points

out

that

la danseuse

n'est

pas

une

femce

qui

danse,

pour

ces motifs

juxtaposes

qu'elle

n'est

pas

une

femmne,

mais une

metaphore

resumant un

des

aspects

i1l6mentaires,

e

notre forme

...

,

et

qu'elle

ne

danse

pas,

suggerant

...

avec

une

ecriture

corporelle

ce

qu'il

faudrait des

paragraphes

en

prose

dialogu&e

utant

que

descriptive, pour

exprimer,

dans la redaction:

poeme degage

de

tout

appareil

du

scribe.

(p.

304).

It

is not

simply

Yeats's

question

of

telling

the

dancer from the dance

that is at

issue,

for the

binary

distinction is

absorbed

by

the

metaphor

which makes the dancer a

gestural hieroglyphic,

a sort of movable

text,

from which

subjectivity

disappears.

Here

the

dancer

is

no

longer

a

woman,

nor

does she dance:

in

the dance

as

pure metaphor,

the dancer

is

sublated from

physical

to textual

realms.

For

Herodiade,

"poeme

degag6

de

tout

appareil

du

scribe,"

this sublation of

the

sensual

is,

understandably

enough,

a

terrifying

possibility.'7

HIrodiade's

crisis

of

emergence

into sensual

maturity,

which

repeats

the rhetorical

pattern

of

desire

presented

in

"Soupir,"

thus

allegorizes

the

attempt

to achieve

poetic

fulfillment,

but it is

an

allegory

which

affirms itself

while

gazing

at its own

shimmering disappearance: "J'ai

de mon rave

6pars

connu

la nudit I "

The

nudity glimpsed

in

these

scattered

dreams reflected

in

the

mir-

ror of consciousness

is

ambiguously

Herodiade's

own sensual

charm

and that

of

poetic language.

In the same

way

that the

disappearance

of

an

object

isolated

from

nature is caused

by

the focused

play

of the

15

Mauron also

opposes

Herodiade

to

Igitur

but

on

different

grounds,

noting

that

despite

their

apparent

shared

solipsism,

Hirodiade offers

us

two

characters,

while

Igitur

remains

alone

(p.

186).

I

would

emphasize

He'rodiade's

isolation;

she always addresses herself to the absent lover, and by no means do we ever per-

ceive

intersubjective

duality

in

the

poem.

Duality

is

internalizedand the

dialogue

of

the "Scene"

quickly

becomes a

dialogue

of

the reflected

self. Davies

gives

Mallarmi's

notation

in

the

manuscript concerning

the

nurse:

"Elle

deplore

l'absence

d'une

princesse" p.

26).

16

Haskell

M.

Block,

Mallarmd

and the

Symbolist

Drama

(Detroit,

Mich.,

1963), p.

19.

17

Cf.

"Les

fleurs,"

where Herodiade

and

flower

imagery

are used as emblems

of the

sublimationof

sensuality

nto

poetic

language.

64



13/20

MALLARMR AND THE SELF

poetic word-"la merveille de transposerun fait de nature en sa presque

disparition

vibratoire selon le

jeu

de la

parole"-so

is

the

scattering

effect,

with

its

subsequent

loss

of

subjectivity,

caused

by

the intense

self-absorption

before the mirror.'" These issues

are also

at

play

in

Igitur,

where we

find

this

analogously

uncanny

scene:

Je

suppliais

de resterune

vague figure

qui

disparaissait

ompl~tement

ans

la

glace

confondue;

usqu'a

e

qu'enfin,

mes mains

6otes

un

moment

de

mes

yeux

ofP

e

les avais mises

pour

ne

pas

la

voir

disparaitre,

ans

une

6pouvantable

sensationd'eternit

. . .

,

elle

m'apparit

omme

'horreur

e

cette

6ternit6.

Et

quande rouvraises yeuxaufonddumiroir, e voyais e personnage'horreur,

le

fant6me e

l'horreur

bsorber

eu

A

peu

ce

qui

restait

de sentiment

t

de douleur

dans

a

glace

..

et

se former

n

rarefiant

a

glace

jusqu'a

ne

purete

nouie.

pp.

440-41)

HeIrodiade's

error before the mirror is

more

clearly

linked

to a

crisis

of

self-awareness

than

to

Igitur's

confrontation

with

temporality,

al-

though

the

problematics

of

temporality

cannot

be

entirely

eliminated

from

Herodiade's obsession with

the

cold

chastity

of the

pure

night.

Nevertheless,

the

poetic

affinities between

Igitur

and

Herodiade

are

clear; in each instance we see the persistence of a willed consciousness

as it

confronts

and fails

to

hold

off

indeterminacy.

The

final

act

of

the "Scene"

hypothesizes

the result

of

our

heroine's

undressing

before the

profundity

of

the

sky:

si

le

tiide

azur

d'6te,

Vers ui nativement

a

femme

e

devoile,

Me

voit

dans

ma

pudeur

relottante

'6toile,

Je

meurs

(HIrodiade,

.

47)

and formulates what seems to be a necessary opposition between the

masculine "bel

azur"

and

"la femme" who unveils

herself

before

it in

fatal confrontation.

The horror

of

virginity

("J'aime

l'horreur

d'etre

vierge")

is now related to the

horror

glimpsed

in

the

mirror

("la

nudit6"),

but

this

opposition

between

feminine

nudity

and

the

natural

masculinity

of "le

bel

azur"

must

be

seen

in

terms

of

the

previous

dialectic

of

polar

differences rather than as

the culmination

of

a sexual

drama.

Herodiade

seems,

despite

her

protestations

to the

contrary,

comfortable

in her

sensuality.

If

she fears the

deflowering

which

will

stain her purity, it is because desire has intervened without the mediat-

ing courtesy

of a desired

object.

As

she

exposes

herself to the

sky,

Herodiade dies.

Her

words,

"Je

meurs,"

are

undoubtedly

meant

in

the

full sensual and

temporal

ambiguity

of

the

phrase,

for

degradation

is

18

Variations

sur

un

sujet, p.

368. See also

Bettina

Knapp,

"'Igitur

or

Elbenon's

Folly':

The

Depersonalization

Process and

the

Creative

Encounter," YFS,

54

(1977),

188-213.

65



14/20


interpreted as a passage from the physical to the metaphysical. When

Herodiade addresses

the

pale

moon as

"ma

soeur

eternelle,"

she

has,

in

fact,

already

dreamt

the

experience

of

solitude

and now

yearns

for

it.

This

sisterly

relation between

the

moon

and

H&rodiade

extends the

virginal

solitude of the celestial wastes

down

toward

earthly

existence,

and

conversely,

extends Herodiade's

sensuality

upward

into

the heav-

ens. Consciousness and

the

frighteningly

seductive celestial

depths

combine

in

the

figure

of Herodiade

to

represent

the failure

of

an

attempted

mediation between will

and

materiality,

of an

attempted

animation of the inanimate. The failure to attain that mediation is synm-

bolized

in

H[rodiade

by

the self-reflexive act

before

the mirror.

In

order to

know

herself,

Hero(liade

imust

recognize

herself as the "nudit"'

in

the

mirror,

but

in

order

to

recognize

the

form in

the

mirror as her-

self,

she

must know herself as

she

is.

Not

the least

of our

assumptions

as

to

what

might

constitute

a

self

is the

notion

that

some

genetic

con-

tinuity

will

arise within

the

polarity

created

between the

reflecting

"thing"

and

its resultant

"image."

The self

engenders

an

appearance

that can be said to be

identical with

itself

and of which

it

is the

origin

and the ground. As the self engenders appearance, so might it be said

that

meaning

engenders

a

sign

of itself.

For

Herodiade,

as for

Igitur,

however,

this assumed

continuity

between

self and

appearance,

between

sign

and

meaning,

is

made

radically

discontinuous.

As

she stands

before the

mirror to

ascertain her

individuality,

He-

rodiade

witnesses instead her own

fragmentation:

"Je m'apparus

en

toi

comme

une

ombre lointaine." The

attempt

to

satisfy

the

nostalgia

for

the

integration

of

self and other

represented

in

"Soupir"

has

now been

internalized as

Herodiade stands before the

reflecting

surface

waiting

for an illusory "chose inconnue" (Herodiade, p. 48). We should stress,

however,

that Herodiade's

tragic insight

is

not,

as

for

Igitur,

into an

absence

of

selfhood,

but

rather

into

a

condition

of

selfhood that she

is

unable to

face

for

psychological

or moral reasons.

With

the

haunting

voice of

"Toast

funebre,"

H6rodiade

might

therefore

say,

"Nous

sommies

/

La

triste

opacit6

de nos

spectres

futurs."

And

yet,

from an

objective

point

of

view,

the

results

of both moments of

insight

are

identical,

for

in

both

cases the

genetic

model

which

might

unify

self

and

image

is shown to

be

one instance

of

rhetorical

mystification.

As we have seen, the word "soeur" is an extremely important ele-

ment

in

the Mallarmnan semantic

network.19

In

"Soupir"

and

to

a

19

Here,

as often

elsewhere,

Mallarme

draws

upon

the

work of

his

most

im-

mediate

precursor

in

the

problematics

of

subjectivity,

Charles Baudelaire.

In

both

the

lyric

and

prose

versions

of

"L'Invitation

au

voyage,"

for

instance,

Baudelaire

uses

the

figure

of the

"soeur" to

represent

a

mysterious affinity

between

mind

and

nature.

The

prose

text,

however,

transforms

this

relation,

expressing

it in a

more

somber, indeed,

ironic

manner.

In the

prose

poem,

the identification

of

self

with

66



15/20

MALLARMR AND

THE

SELF

greater extent in Herodiade, the notion of the "soeur" becomes the

thematic

expression

of

a

desire

for a union of

language's

representative

and semantic

functions.

"Soeur,"

as

symbol,

is

the

synecdoche desig-

nating

the

totality

of which

it

is

merely

the sensorial

equivalent.

That

in

Htrodiade

"soeur"

becomes

associated with

the

problem

of self-

reflection

is

therefore almost

a

necessary

development.

The

herme-

neutic

process

of self-consideration

is

expandable

from the

province

of

a

sensual crisis onto

a

plane

of

linguistic

crisis because

"soeur"

exists

as

an

analogical

form of more

general

meanings.

The network

of

images

"jet d'eau," "fontaine," nmiroir,"and "ame" culminates in the figure

of the

"soeur,"

which

in

turn

is

an embodiment

of

an even more

transcendent

figure,

Herodiade

herself.

This

syntax

of

figures

unloosed

from

their

proper

referents tends

to

produce

an

errant

semantics,

but

the semantic

dissonance

in

Hbrodiade,

the

loss

of

definite sense

by

the

metaphors

of

consciousness,

is

expressed by

the

very

rhetoric

of the

poem

and

compels

the reader to

participate

in

an

apparently

endless

process

of

meaning

construction.

With

that

displacement

of

meaning,

the

narcissistic

drive

toward

self-consciousness, the attempt to break through the mirror to capture

"l'horreur"

of one's

own

psychic

nudity,

reveals

instead the

transience

and

contingency

of

consciousness,

and Mallarme uses the term

scene to

emphasize

the

theatricality

of

this

subjective

self-substantiation.

With

its

connotations

of

visibility

and

staging,

the

term

points

toward

a

drama

of self-creation. Charles

Mauron has claimed

that

"en

&crivant

une scene

de

theitre,

Mallarmn

rompt

avec le

narcissisme

normal

du

lyrique"

and

that

what

we see

is the

objectification

of

Mallarme's

own

interior conflict.20

The perspective I suggest precludes seeing the dramatizationof the

self

as a break with the

"narcissism

of the

lyric."

I

would

argue

that the

mise

en

scene

in

Mallarme's

poem

is

this

very

narcissism

of

conscious-

ness.

The claim

of

both

poems

is

universal:

to

recuperate

the

split

con-

sciousness

by

a dramatization

of

the

cogito,

of

an

act

of

thought.

But

neither

poem

bears

out that

claim; instead,

both

narrate

the

failure of

reconciliation,

and

writing

returns

in each case to the

simple

scene

of

the

referentiality

of

nature,

"le soleil

jaune,"

for

instance. We do not

other

is no

longer

a

necessary act,

but

rather

an

arbitrary

fiction.

Whereas

in the

lyric

version the

figural

"soeur" and the substantial

"pays"

can coincide because of

their

analogical

relationship

(formalized

in

language

as

metaphor),

in

the later

prose

text the relation

is no

longer

metaphoric

but

allegorical,

no

longer

formal

but

temporal.

"Soeur" becomes

the insubstantial

metaphor

of a

metaphor

as

she

becomes

the

"grands

fleuves"

which

flow

into

"la

mer

qui

est

l'Infinie."

See

Oeuzvres

compltes

de

Baudelaire,

ed.

Y. G.

Le

Dantec

and Claude Pichois

(Paris,

1961),

pp.

51-52

for the

lyric version,

and

pp.

253-55

for the

prose

text.

20

Mauron,

p.

186.

67



16/20


need to have read Jacques Derrida, however, to recognize the insta-

bility

of

that solar

metaphor.2'

In

attempting

to substantiate her

pres-

ence

H6rodiade

aligns

herself,

as

does the narrative voice

of

"Soupir,"

with an

outside

referent,

variously

called

"ame,"

"l'azur,"

"ma

soeur

eternelle,"

which itself

has

no

presence except

as

metaphor.

Herodiade

succeeds,

consequently,

only

in

negating

the

idea

of

a

universally

veri-

fiable

subjectivity.

The

attempt

by

the

subject

to

think

upon

itself,

to

capture

its own

image

in

the

reflexive

surface

of

consciousness,

is

thus

negated

by

the

disappearance

of

the self.

And,

I

would

add,

the loss of

the distinctive sense of personality which the lyrical voice of "Soupir,"

like

Herodiade,

Igitur,

and even

Mallarme

himself

experiences

and

attempts

to

overcome

by

naming

itself before

a

reflecting

surface,

is no

mere

play

of words. To

establish

its own

identity

and

source,

the

speaking

voice turns

on itself and

hypostasizes

the various

moments

that constitute

the duration of

its discourse

into one

relational

entity.

This act

of

denomination,

therefore,

always posits

the

ego

as

a

logical

(syntactic)

category,

but

cannot

verify

it as a

subjective reality.

In

each

attempted

verification,

the semantic

quality

of

the

metaphorical

sign of the self can be constituted only in the temporal repetition of the

sign's

desire

to coincide with a

prior sign

with which it

can never

coincide.

It

follows, then,

that

Mallarme's

text

points

to

the

paradox

that

subjectivity,

the notion of

a

stable

self,

can

only

be

created within

a

metaphoric

system

of

oppositions

where the

subject

is

central,

deny-

ing

its own

centrality.

Our

emphasis

suggests

that the

articulation

which

attempts

to

substantiate its

reality

in

the face of

"I'Azur" suc-

ceeds

only

in

revealing

the

fictitiousness of

the

ego

and

its

actions.

The

perspective

offered

here

on

the

activity

of

hypostasis

suggests

other revisions in our reading of Mallarm&.Primarily, the laws which

regulate

the

systems

of

opposition

deserve

careful attention.

We

should

note,

for

instance,

that while the

language

of

"Soupir"

and

of

Herodiade

is

grammaticallyprecise,

even

rigorous,

it is

apparently

not

concerned

with

semantic

considerations. In both

poems

language

becomes

a

me-

chanical

system

of

oppositions

governed by

the

identifiable

laws of

syn-

tax:

"Quel

pivot,

j'entends,

dans ces

contrastes,

a

l'intelligibilite?

il

faut

une

garantie-La

Syntaxe"

(Le Myst're

dans les

lettres,

p.

385).

Yet

it

is

precisely

this

formalistic

rigor

that the

poems

proceed

to de-

aestheticize. I think Mallarme would have us recall that in musicology a

21

Cf.

Derrida,

"La

Mythologie

blanche" in

Marges

de

la

philosophie

(Paris,

1972)

and

"La

Double seance"

in La

Diss

imination

(Paris,

1972).

My

own read-

ing

differs from

Derrida's

to the extent

that

he

claims

that

"Entre

deux,

il

n'y

a

plus

de

difference,

mais

identit6

.

. Non

seulement

la

difference est

abolie

.

.

.

mais la

difference entre la

difference

et la

non-difference"

(La

Dissemination,

p.

237).

That a

difference

among

the

various

versions

of

the

self

persists

seems to

me

important

and

difficult to

ignore.

68



17/20

MALLARMIE AND THE SELF

"soupir" is a rest. The "soupir" of Mallarmei's poems might then be

considered

as the

semantic

blank

occurring

in

all

the

parts suppressing

the moment

of desire and

ending

with the

disappearance

of

the

specular

self.22

In

these

texts,

the

Hegelian Selbstvernichtung

is not

a function

of

the

growth

of a

knowledge

that

would lead to a transcendent

synthe-

sis

of

the

subject

and

the

object.

This notion

of

synthesis

has

become

a

commonplace

in

the

interpre-

tation of

Mallarme's

poetry

as

latter-day

Romanticism.23

Since

con-

temporary

criticism has

considerably

revised

that

commonplace

for such

figures as Rousseau, Wordsworth, and Keats, it should not be at all

surprising

that

a

similarly synthetic

reading

of

Mallarmei

will

not suc-

ceed

in

resolving

the

difficulties of his

text.

For

Mallarmei

the

moment

of

negation

does

not

coincide,

as

it

does

for

Hegel,

with

the

emergence

of

a true

Subject.''

On the

contrary,

Mallarme undoes the

stability

of

that

organic

pattern by

presenting

what

Hippolyte

has

aptly

termed

"le

materialisme

de

l'Idee"

of

subjectivity.25

I

should caution

that

we

are

not

speaking

simply

about

a

solipsistic

reduction

to

subjectivism.

Al-

though

it

is

possible

to

read

Mallarme's text as such

a

reduction,

the

text always reconstitutes itself as a network of differences, a play of

syntax

within which the various

versions of

the

metaphors

of the

self

continue

to vie for

precedence.

I

suggest

simply

that

Mallarmrn's

arra-

tive

"I"

emerges

as

a

logical

construct divorced

from

any

essential

ground,

but

which nonetheless

constitutes

a moment

in

the linear

pro-

gression

of

the

poem.

Mallarmn's

"I"

cannot attain the

status

of what

phenomenologists

term

transcendental

subjectivity,

but the

lyrical

his-

tory

of

the

subject's

desire for transcendence remains

teleologically

motivated

and

can

therefore

be

narrated.

In

Un

Coup

de dis

and in

the

projected universal Livre, Mallarme would attempt systematically and

masterfully

to

bring

this narration to a

close.

22

The

musicology

of

Mallarme's

aesthetics

is

another

topic altogether.

Never-

theless,

see Le

Mystere

dans les

lettres,

where

Mallarmt

speaks

about

the

reading

and

writing

of texts

in

precisely

these musical terms:

"Je

sais,

on

veut

a

la

Musique,

limiter le

Mystere;

quand

I'lcrit

y

pretend

.

.

.

L'&crit,

envol

tacite

d'abstraction, reprend

ses

droits

en

face

de

la chute des sons nus: tous

deux,

Musique

et

lui,

intimant une

prealable

disjonction,

celle de

la

parole,

certainement

par

effroi de fournir

au

bavardage" (p. 385).

23

Cf.

Cohn,

pp.

2-3;

Cooperman,

The Aesthetic

of Stephane

Mallarme

(New

York,

1933),

p.

41;

and

Richard,

p.

20.

The

general tendency

to

see

symbolist

and

post-symbolist

poetry

as modern versions of Romantic

insights

is best

exemplified

by Hugo

Friedrich's influential

Die Struktur der Modernen

Lyrik (Hamburg,

1967),

translated

by

Joachim Neugroschel

as

The

Structure

of

Modern

Poetry

(Evanston,

Ill.,

1974).

24

Cf.

Paul

de

Man, "Theory

of

Metaphor

in

Rousseau's Second

Discourse,"

SIR,

12

(1973),

475-98;

Geoffrey Hartman,

The Fate

of

Reading

(Chicago,

1975)

;

and Harold

Bloom,

The

Anxiety

of

Influence

(New

York,

1973)

for

three

distinct versions

of

this

reformulation. See

also

Hippolyte,

p.

468,

and

Block,

p.

53.

25

Hippolyte, p.

465.

69



18/20

COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

For the present, however, we can say that Mallarmi's poetic language

does not

recapture

the

loss

of

subjectivity,

since

poetic

language

cannot

presume to

represent

the

substantiality

of

any

object.

The

representa-

tion

is

never

the

reality,

but

always

simply

the tentative

reconstruction

of

reality

by

the

subject

who

expresses

the

mimetic word.

"Au con-

traire

d'une

fonction de

nunieraire

facile

et

representatif," says

Mal-

larme,

"le

dire

...

retrouve chez

le

Poete,

par

necessite constitutive

d'un

art

consacre

aux

fictions,

sa

virtualite"

(Crise

de

vers,

p.

368).

The word

which

finds its "virtual"

ground

in

the

figure

of the Poet is

not, however, the thing it namnes:f it were, then absolute expressions

and

1privileged

tateiments

about

the self could

be

spoken.

But

neither

is

language

pure

signification;

it

is

intimately

tied to

voice

and

sound.

As

sonority,

organized

in

the

poem by

a

syntax

of

rhyme

and

assonance,

language

can

create

certain

convergences.

Whatever

"meaning"

emerges

from

these textual

convergences

does

have

value,

but

it is

a

value derived from

the

essentially

contingent qualities

of the

human

voice:

"Le

vers

qcui

de

plusiers

vocables

refait un

mot

total,

neuf,

etranger

a la

langue

comme

incantatoire,

acheve

cet

isolement

de

la

parole: niant .

..

le hasard demeure aux terms maigre l'artificede leur

retrempe

alternbe

en

le

sens

et

la

sonorite"

(p.

368).

Reading,

then,

as

Mallarmei

reminds

us,

is an

exercise-we

must

bend our

minds

to

the

blank

"soupir"

which

begins

and

punctuates

the

text

of

every

expression.2"

As we

read,

the

perpetual

play

of sound and

silence

both

creates the

poem

and

allows

it

to

say

something.

It would

be

inaccurate to

say,

however,

that

the

possibility

of

access

to

the

truth

of

subjectivity

has

simply

been

transferred

from

language

as statement

to

language

as voice and

melody.

At

this

point,

as

Neal

Oxenhandler

has shown, we are not far from the Husserl of the Ca

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