The End of Books? New Strategies for Publishing Poetry in Fin-de-Siècle France
Wednesday, March 1st, SGIS 4067 3:00pm
Nicolas Valazza
Associate Professor
of French
Department of
French and Italian
The end of the nineteenth century in France was
characterized by a widespread fear that the traditional book format would soon become obsolete
under the influence of new mechanized technologies
such the mass printing of periodicals, telegraphy,
and phonography. Major poets such as Verlaine,
Rimbaud and Mallarmé, who already struggled to
publish books, were particularly affected. Focusing
on the case of Mallarmé, this talk argues that the
crisis prompted French poets to develop innovative
literary and editorial strategies that paved the way
for a new publishing format, the “artist’s book,”
which would become a major art form for literary
and artistic avant-gardes in the twentieth century.
The Institute for
European Studies
For more information, contact: [email protected], 812-855-3280