Toward a Poetics of Witness: Apollinaire, Cendrars and the French Poets of the First
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Toward a Poetics of Witness: Apollinaire, Cendrars and the French Poets of the First World War by Nichole T. Gleisner Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date: _______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Alice Y. Kaplan, Supervisor ___________________________ Roberto Dainotto ___________________________ Paol Keineg ___________________________ Toril Moi ___________________________ Helen Solterer Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 i v ABSTRACT Toward a Poetics of Witness: Apollinaire, Cendrars and the French Poets of the First World War by Nichole T. Gleisner Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Alice Y. Kaplan, Supervisor ___________________________ Roberto Dainotto ___________________________ Paol Keineg ___________________________ Toril Moi ___________________________ Helen Solterer An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 i v Copyright by Nichole T. Gleisner 2011 Abstract This dissertation addresses the lack of an identifiable group of World War I soldier-poets within the French literary and cultural canon. Through a study of archival matter from the period, including a survey of trench newspapers, contemporary print media, first editions, and material objects, the author concludes that one possible factor is the phenomenon of the democratization of the figure of the poet in the French trenches. The dissertation describes the groundbreaking rejection of the romantic definition of poetry as a sacred activity in favor of the view that poetry could be written by anyone, particularly those who served as witnesses on the front lines of experience. During the First World War, these common soldier-poets, later known broadly as témoins, were validated and encouraged from diverse places in French society: from the trenches where the soldiersř newspapers actively mobilized enlisted men to pick up a pen and write, to venerable institutions such as the Académie Française and Académie Goncourt which continually validated works by soldier-writers during the war years. However, the democratization of the poet was not always openly received by established poets. Guillaume Apollinaire, who served as a soldier during the the First World War, struggled with how to redefine his role once he enlisted. Through close readings of a wide variety of his wartime writings, with a particular emphasis on Calligrammes (1918), the dissertation shows how this struggle dogged him until his death on November 9, 1918. iv A second case is examined in the figure of Blaise Cendrars, who served in the French Foreign Legion during the war until he was seriously wounded. Through close readings of several fundamental postwar texts such as La Guerre au Luxembourg (1916) and J’ai tué (1918) as well an examination of the film J’accuse (1919), one sees how Cendrars resisted the idea that soldiers should become writers and how his renunciation of this double role became a crucial part of his personal mythology, helping to explain his oft-recounted rejection of poetry in 1917 following the amputation of his right hand. Through comparing the poetic careers of Apollinaire and Cendrars, two distinct responses to the question of how to witness the war emerge. Furthermore, the social phenomenon of the democratization of the poet in the trenches provides an essential backdrop to approaching wartime texts of witness, from both Apollinaire and Cendrars, as well as lesser-known writers such as René Dalize, Lucien Linais, Marc de Larreguy de Civrieux and Pierre Reverdy. v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ix Introduction .....................................................................................................................1 The Evolution of the Era of the Witness .....................................................................6 The Continued Pressures of Témoins........................................................................ 12 The Unrelenting Tension between Poetry and Witnessing ........................................ 13 The Bifurcation of Symbolism and Realism ............................................................. 14 The Narrative of Poetry............................................................................................ 17 The Ethical and Aesthetic Obligations of a Poetics of Witness ................................. 22 Chapter One: The Literary Trenches .............................................................................. 28 A Material Cult(ure) of Literature ............................................................................ 29 From Pupils to Poilus .............................................................................................. 39 The Writing, Fighting Numbers ............................................................................... 46 The Trench Newspapers: Producing Writers out of Soldiers ..................................... 48 ŖInutile dřêtre académicien…ŗ ................................................................................. 63 Toward a Premature Memorialization ...................................................................... 68 Reaping Poetry from the Trenches ........................................................................... 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 81 Chapter Two: Apollinaire in Search of Ŗles guerres dřautrefoisŗ .................................... 83 vi Assassinating the Poet: Apollinaire Writes the War in Prose .................................... 89 ŖÉcrivain combattantŗ: Apollinaire on the Front Lines of a Debate ........................ 107 Calligrammes: The Emergence of the Artisan ........................................................ 114 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 128 Chapter Three: Cendrars and the Renunciation of the Soldier-Poet .............................. 131 Emphatically not a Soldier-Poet ............................................................................. 140 La Guerre au Luxembourg ..................................................................................... 146 La Fin du Monde filmée par l’Ange Notre-Dame: Toward a Poetics of Image ........ 159 From Scenario to Cinema : J’accuse ...................................................................... 165 Confronting a reality: J’ai tué ................................................................................ 172 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 183 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 185 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 198 Biography .................................................................................................................... 210 vii List of Figures Figure 1: The war-time cahier of a French soldier labeled ŖJ-H et Mathilde, 1914 Ŕŗ. Printed with permission from the Archives of the Historial de la Grande Guerre Ŕ Péronne (Somme, France). Personal photograph. ........................................................... 35 Figure 2: Three pens used by soldiers during World War I. Printed with permission from the Archives of the Historial de la Grande Guerre Ŕ Péronne (Somme, France). Personal photograph. ................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 3: The masthead of a newspaper that was reproduced rudimentarily from the trenches: the inaugural issue of Le Chabi, Ŗjournal anti-neurasthénique.ŗ Printed with permission from the Archives of the Historial de la Grande Guerre Ŕ Péronne (Somme, France). ......................................................................................................................... 50 Figure 4: Image of a professionally produced trench newspaper, Les Boyaux du 95e. Printed with permission from the Historial de la Grande Guerre Ŕ Péronne (Somme, France). Personal photograph......................................................................................... 51 viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Alice Kaplan for her thoughtful and nuanced guidance of this dissertation, as well as for her invaluable support and encouragement throughout the course of my graduate career. Her consummate example and unceasing assistance not only nurtured a fledgling scholar but also cultivated a bond writer-to- writer. Professor Paol Keineg, with his ever-perceptive and careful readings along the way, has nourished this project from its beginnings in a directed study several years ago and its completion