Abstruseness of Rimbaud's Barbare : Autotextuality and Meaning

Okkeun Shin

doi:10.21049/ccs.2016.43..327

Cross-Cultural Studies

2016, 43(), pp.327-354
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2016.43..327
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature

Okkeun Shin ¹

¹공주대학교

ABSTRACT

Rimbaud’s prose poem, Barbare in Illuminations, is known for its abstruseness with regard to forms, themes, metaphors. This paper first analyzes the poem’s grammatical structure to make sense of such an inscrutable piece of work, then discusses its autotextuality in order to decipher its meaning by comparison with Rimbaud’s other works. Autotextuality, a method of literary interpretation of Rimbaud's prose poem presented by Steve Murphy, refers to the intertextuality between the author's works. Despite some previous researches focusing on the intertextuality of Barbare, previous authors have failed not only to find its meaning but also to determine its significance. The abstruseness of Rimbaud's Barbare is sometimes considered an example of the meaningless of Rimbaud’s work. However, examining the textual structure and the autotextuality builds meaning, rather than rendering the work meaningless. Barbare which consists entirely of noun phrases and metaphors means destruction, fusion and the pure power of regeneration in the original context of Rimbaud's work. This poem is Rimbaud's answer to Baudelaire's poetic question, Any of where out of World, and presents a strange scenery that uses 'the eternal female voice' to reach the Vulcan in the North Pole. Interpretation of Barbare could provide a methodology for reading the difficult Illuminations. The kind of analyses used are, for example, analysis of the text, analysis of verbal indicators, autotextuality, and an understanding of the joy and the solitude in the silence of the poem. Understanding Barbare may provide a method of interpreting the abstruseness of Illuminations. Through this approach, we can connect and combine every fragment of the Illuminations, so that we can reconstruct the story and the adventure contained therein.
KEYWORDS

abstruseness, Rimbaud, Barbare, meaning, Illuminations, autotextuality
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