Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace

Altti Kuusamo

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace

Altti Kuusamo

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 3)

Received: 20 December 2021 Accepted: 21 April 2022 Published: 10 May 2022

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Abstract

Altti Kuusamo’s article deals with the theme of loss and melancholy in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem The Swan (Le Cygne, 1859) taking seriously into account one of the central subject matters, the image of the La Place du Carrousel, which referred to the courtyard between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace and which had turned out to be a wasteland during Baudelaire’s mature work, in 1850s. In this way my article does not concentrate on the favourite subject of the flaneur in Charles Baudelaire’s poems, not even in the manner which Walter Benjamin made so fashionable. Instead, I’ll draw attention to the mental topography of the Carrousel site in Paris which seemed to be important to Baudelaire and also to his friends during 1840s. The feeling of the deserted quarters is in a way “humming” in the backyard of the Baudelaire’s poem. The motivation for my article lies in pondering why so many literary analysts of the poem, for example Walter Benjamin, Jean Starobinski, Yves Bonnefoy, Jonathan Culler, Stephanie Bundy and Ross Chambers, just to name some central literary figures, have not taken into account those images and metaphors which surround the name Carrousel in the poem. In the poem metaphors which are connected to ancient myths sweep the deserted paving stones of Place du Carrousel and illustrate the situation in which the demolition of the houses and streets of the western side of Louvre had taken place. Also the themes of loss and exile are closely tied to the central imagery of Carrousel close to Louvre.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
Page(s)	157-165
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Baudelaire, The Swan, Melancholy, Spleen, Allegory, Place du Carrousel, Paris, Exiledom

References

[1]	Baudelaire, C. Correpondances I-II; Texte établie, présenté et annoté par Claude Pichois avec collaboration de Jean Ziegler; Paris: Gallimard, 1973/1993, 623.
[2]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 20.
[3]	Benjamin, W. Illuminationen; Ausgewählte Schriften 1; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, 199.
[4]	Mercier, S. Tableau de Paris I–II; Amsterdam (unspecified publisher), 1782, ix.
[5]	Mercier, S. Tableau de Paris I-II; Amsterdam (unspecified publisher, 1782, V–VI.
[6]	See Kuusamo, A. Allegoria, melankolia, raunio; Modernin melankolian dynamiikkaa; Synteesi (35) 1–2, 2016, 103–118.
[7]	There has been a tendency to read Baudelaire’s poems through the lenses of Walter Benjamin. An archetypal sample of the ‘rubble and ruins’ reading strategy is in Rosen, C. Romantic Poets Critics and Other Madmen; Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1998, 142–181.
[8]	Baudelaire, C. The Flowers of Evil; A new translation with the parallel French text. Translated by James McGowan; Oxford: Oxford University press, 1998, 174.
[9]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 16.
[10]	Baudelaire, C. The Flowers of Evil; A new translations with the parallel French text. Translated by James McGowan; Oxford University Press, 1998, 173.
[11]	Baudelaire, C. The Flowers of Evil. Translated by James McGowan; Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 174-175.
[12]	Gaillard, J. 1976. Paris, la ville, 1852–1870: l’urbanisme parisien à l’heure d’Haussman [n]: des provinciaux aux Parisiens: la vocation ou les vocations parisiennes; Lille: Université de Lille, 1976, 18. Horne, Alistair. The Seven Ages of Paris; London: MacMillan, 2002, 269.
[13]	Culler, J. Introduction. Charles Baudelaire: The Flowers of Evil. A New Translation with parallel French Text; Translated by James McGowan with an Introduction by J. Culler; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, xiii–liii; Starobinski, J. 1989. Starobinski, J. L’encre de la mélancolie; Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2012. Sjöbald, C. Baudelaires landskap; Utan poesi aldrig!. Baudelaire i nuet; Ed. C. Sjöbald; Stockholm: Carlssons, 2008, 194–226. Bundy, S. “Exile in modernity: The localized dislocation of Charles Baudelaire ’s Le Cygne.” English and Contemporary Literary Studies, Spring 2009, 1–29.
[14]	Quarantini, F. Z. ‘Andromaque’ au Carrousel; Une Lecture de la Cycne; Revue italienne d’études francaises. (2) 2012, 1–24.
[15]	Benjamin, W. Gesammelte Schriften I; Ed. Rolf Tiedemann & Hermann Scweppenhäuser; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974, 586.
[16]	Guichardet, J. Balzac “archéologue” de Paris; Paris: SEDES, 1986, 168.
[17]	Bombarde, O Le mémoire et ses Chemins traverse; Baudelaire et Nerval. Poétiques compares; Paris: Honoiré Champion Éditéur, 2015, 112–116. Sjöblad, C. 2008, 194–226.
[18]	Schaaf, L., J. Doing the Django – and Finding Talbot’s Calotype School in 1843 Paris. https://talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/2018/05/18/doing-the-django-to-find-talbots-calotypeschool-in-1843-paris/. (Accessed 18.11.2018, 2.12.2019).
[19]	Baudelaire, C. Écrits sur l’art; Paris: Libraire Générale Francaise, 1992, 305, 337.
[20]	Benjamin, W. Gesammelte Schriftern I; Ed. Rolf Tiedemann & Hermann Scweppenhäuser; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974, 591.
[21]	Focillon, H. Maitres de l’estampe; Paris: Flammarion. 1969, 173.
[22]	Starobinski, J. L’encre de la mélancolie; Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2012, 310.
[23]	Makarius, M. Ruines. Représentations dans l’art de la Renaissance à nos jour. Paris: Flammarion, 2011, 228–229, 310.
[24]	Starobinski, J. La melancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 68.
[25]	Graves, R. The Greek Myths: 2; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974, 296–297, 316.
[26]	Ovid. Metamorhoses; Translated by Mary Innes; New York: Penguin Books, XII, 72–145, XII, 145.
[27]	Baudelaire, C. The Flowers of Evil; A new translation. Translated by James McGowan; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, 174–175.
[28]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au mirroir. Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 48–49, 56.
[29]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 50.
[30]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 49.
[31]	Schück, H. Yleinen kirjallisuuden historia 5; Ranskan klassismi; Helsinki: WSOY, 1961, 312.
[32]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 70–71.
[33]	Kofman, S. Melancolie de l’art. Paris: Édition galilée, 1985, 17.
[34]	Sandström, D. Andromaque, jag tanker på dig; Baudelaire – det moderna livets betraktare; Studier I ett författarskap; Ed. C. Sjöbald & L. Leopold; Lund: Absalom, 1998, 114, 116–117.
[35]	Comay, R. La Mélancolie et le fétichisme à l’ère de la mémoire de masse. Sur ma manière de travailler; Actes du colloque Art et Psychanalyse II; Ed. Hervé Bouchereau & Chantal Pontbriand. Québec: Parachute, 2002, 25.
[36]	Chambers, R. An Atmospherics of the City; Baudelaire and the Poetics of Noise; New York: Fordham University Press, 2015, 78–79.
[37]	Cf. Starobinski J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 68–70.
[38]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 68.
[39]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 64. Starobinski: “Les destructions et reconstruction de l’urbanisme du milieu du siècle, avec leur mélange de monumentalité et de function répressive, sont-elles l’une des causes du spleen et du sentiment d’exil?”
[40]	Bonnefoy, Y. Le siècle de Baudelaire; Paris: Seuil, 2014, 45–46.
[41]	E. g. Kuusamo, A. Modernin melankolian dynamiikkaa I: sivullisuus, päättämättömyys ja viipyily; Synteesi (33) 3, 2014, 11–12.
[42]	Baudelaire, C. The Flowers of Evil; Translated by James McGowan, J.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, 186–187.
[43]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 56.
[44]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Toirs lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 56-57.
[45]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Toirs lectures de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard, 1989, 75.
[46]	Chambers, R. An Atmospherics of the City; Baudelaire and the Poetics of Noise; New York: Fordham University Press, 78–82.
[47]	Benjamin, W. Gesammelte Schriften I; Ed. Rolf Tiedemann & Hermann Scweppenhäuser; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974, 586-588.
[48]	Benjamin, W. Illuminationen; Ausgewählte Schriften 1; Franfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, 180.
[49]	Tiedemann, R. Studien zur Philosophie Walter Benjamins; Franfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973, 122.
[50]	Starobinski, J. L’encre de la mélancolie; Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2012, 310–11.
[51]	Horkheimer, M. Eclipse of Reason; Oxford University Press, 1947, 38.
[52]	Holly, M. A. The Melancholy Art; New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2013, 11–17.
[53]	Nylén, A. Dandysmi, edistys ja kritiikin tila – jälkisanat; Charles Baudelaire: Modernin elämän maalari ja muita kirjoituksia; Translation and commentary by A. Nylén; Helsinki: Desura, 2001, 348, footnote 6.
[54]	Nylén, A. Dandysmi, edistys ja kritiikin tila; Baudelaire: Modernin elämän maalari ja muita kirjoituksia; Translation and commentary by A. Nylén; Helsinki: Desura, 2001, 347.
[55]	Kuusamo, A. 2014, 10–12; cf. Vogl, J. Über das Zaudern; Zürich-Berlin: Diaphanes, 2007, 12–18.
[56]	Nylén, A. Danysmi, edistys ja kritiikin tila; Baudelaire: Modernin elämän maalari ja muita kirjoituksia; Translation and commentary by A. Nylén; Helsinki: Desuram, 2001, 333.
[57]	Johannisson, K. Melankoliska rum. Om ångest, leda och sårbarhet I förluten tid och nutid. Stockholm: Bonnier pocket, 2010, 149–150. Cf. Starobinski 1989, 23–25; cf. Sartre, J-P. Baudelaire; Paris: Édition Gallimard, 1975, 143–144.
[58]	Praz, M. The Romantic Agony; Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, 29–30.
[59]	Starobinski 2012, 464. Starobinski derives his idea of melancholic disorder from Ludwig Binswanger’s Melancholie und Manie, 1960 (see: Starobinski 2012, 462). Regarding beauty, Baudelaire himself has professed: ‘La mélancholie, toujours inséparable du sentiment du beau’ (Praz 1990, 30). Erich Auerbach points out that Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil marked the end of ‘ewige Seligkeit”, being supplanted by le Néant and eclipsed by Verderbnis des Sinnlichen (Look: Auerbach, E. Baudelaire’s ‘Fleur du Mal’ und das Erhabene. Baudelaire; Ed. Alfred Noyer-Weidler; Darmstadt: Wissenschftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1976, 152–153.
[60]	Sandström, D. Andromaque, jag tänker på dig; Baudelaire -det moderna livets betraktare. Studier I ett författarskap. Ed. C. Sjöblad & L. Leopold; Lund: Absalom, 1998, 122.
[61]	Nylén, A. Dandysmi, edistys ja kritiikin tila; Baudelaire: Modernin elämän maalari ja muita kirjoituksia; Translation and commentary by A. Nylén; Helsinki: Deasura, 2001, 149.
[62]	Starobinski, J. L’encre de la mélancolie;; Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2012, 315.
[63]	Starobinski, J. La mélancolie au miroir; Trois de Baudelaire; Paris: Julliard 1989, 73.
[64]	Benjamin, W. Illuminationen; Ausgewählte Schriften 1; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, 219.
[65]	Benjamin, W. Illuminationen; Ausgewählte Schriften 1; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, 218.
[66]	Benjamin, W. Gesammelte Schriften I; Ed. R. Tiedemann & H. Scwäppenhäuser; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974, 1151.
[67]	Giorgio Agamben refers to Léon Daudet, who coined the concept of the aura in 1929, specifically in relation to Baudelaire (be it noted in a treatise called La mélancolie). Daudet described Baudelaire as a “poet of the aura” (Agamben G. Stanze; La parola **e il fantasma nella cultura occidentale; Torino: Einaudi, 1993, 53). Benjamin sometimes, as if by accident, used the terms ‘allegory’ and ‘melancholy’ interchangeably. See Benjamin 1977, 249. In Benjamin’s lexicon, allegory thus becomes an ‘auratic’ expression.
[68]	Benjamin, W. Illuminationen; Ausgewählte Schriften 1; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, 223.
[69]	Gustafsson, L. Time, Pain and Loss; The Grey Hope; The persistence of melancholy; Ed. Sandström, Sigrid & Atopia Projects. PROJECT 4.66, 2006, 58.
[70]	Leakey, F. W. Baudelaire and Nature; Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969, 72, 79, 161–163; cf. Sartre, J-P. Baudelaire; Paris: Gallimard, 1975, 108–109.

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Altti Kuusamo. (2022). Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(3), 157-165. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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Altti Kuusamo. Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(3), 157-165. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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Altti Kuusamo. Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(3):157-165. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12,
  author = {Altti Kuusamo},
  title = {Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {157-165},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221003.12},
  abstract = {Altti Kuusamo’s article deals with the theme of loss and melancholy in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem The Swan (Le Cygne, 1859) taking seriously into account one of the central subject matters, the image of the La Place du Carrousel, which referred to the courtyard between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace and which had turned out to be a wasteland during Baudelaire’s mature work, in 1850s. In this way my article does not concentrate on the favourite subject of the flaneur in Charles Baudelaire’s poems, not even in the manner which Walter Benjamin made so fashionable. Instead, I’ll draw attention to the mental topography of the Carrousel site in Paris which seemed to be important to Baudelaire and also to his friends during 1840s. The feeling of the deserted quarters is in a way “humming” in the backyard of the Baudelaire’s poem. The motivation for my article lies in pondering why so many literary analysts of the poem, for example Walter Benjamin, Jean Starobinski, Yves Bonnefoy, Jonathan Culler, Stephanie Bundy and Ross Chambers, just to name some central literary figures, have not taken into account those images and metaphors which surround the name Carrousel in the poem. In the poem metaphors which are connected to ancient myths sweep the deserted paving stones of Place du Carrousel and illustrate the situation in which the demolition of the houses and streets of the western side of Louvre had taken place. Also the themes of loss and exile are closely tied to the central imagery of Carrousel close to Louvre.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace
AU  - Altti Kuusamo
Y1  - 2022/05/10
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
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JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
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PB  - Science Publishing Group
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
AB  - Altti Kuusamo’s article deals with the theme of loss and melancholy in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem The Swan (Le Cygne, 1859) taking seriously into account one of the central subject matters, the image of the La Place du Carrousel, which referred to the courtyard between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace and which had turned out to be a wasteland during Baudelaire’s mature work, in 1850s. In this way my article does not concentrate on the favourite subject of the flaneur in Charles Baudelaire’s poems, not even in the manner which Walter Benjamin made so fashionable. Instead, I’ll draw attention to the mental topography of the Carrousel site in Paris which seemed to be important to Baudelaire and also to his friends during 1840s. The feeling of the deserted quarters is in a way “humming” in the backyard of the Baudelaire’s poem. The motivation for my article lies in pondering why so many literary analysts of the poem, for example Walter Benjamin, Jean Starobinski, Yves Bonnefoy, Jonathan Culler, Stephanie Bundy and Ross Chambers, just to name some central literary figures, have not taken into account those images and metaphors which surround the name Carrousel in the poem. In the poem metaphors which are connected to ancient myths sweep the deserted paving stones of Place du Carrousel and illustrate the situation in which the demolition of the houses and streets of the western side of Louvre had taken place. Also the themes of loss and exile are closely tied to the central imagery of Carrousel close to Louvre.
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Altti Kuusamo

School of History, Culture and Arts Studies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

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Altti Kuusamo. (2022). Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(3), 157-165. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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Altti Kuusamo. Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(3), 157-165. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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Altti Kuusamo. Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(3):157-165. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12,
  author = {Altti Kuusamo},
  title = {Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {157-165},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221003.12},
  abstract = {Altti Kuusamo’s article deals with the theme of loss and melancholy in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem The Swan (Le Cygne, 1859) taking seriously into account one of the central subject matters, the image of the La Place du Carrousel, which referred to the courtyard between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace and which had turned out to be a wasteland during Baudelaire’s mature work, in 1850s. In this way my article does not concentrate on the favourite subject of the flaneur in Charles Baudelaire’s poems, not even in the manner which Walter Benjamin made so fashionable. Instead, I’ll draw attention to the mental topography of the Carrousel site in Paris which seemed to be important to Baudelaire and also to his friends during 1840s. The feeling of the deserted quarters is in a way “humming” in the backyard of the Baudelaire’s poem. The motivation for my article lies in pondering why so many literary analysts of the poem, for example Walter Benjamin, Jean Starobinski, Yves Bonnefoy, Jonathan Culler, Stephanie Bundy and Ross Chambers, just to name some central literary figures, have not taken into account those images and metaphors which surround the name Carrousel in the poem. In the poem metaphors which are connected to ancient myths sweep the deserted paving stones of Place du Carrousel and illustrate the situation in which the demolition of the houses and streets of the western side of Louvre had taken place. Also the themes of loss and exile are closely tied to the central imagery of Carrousel close to Louvre.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Charles Baudelaire’s The Swan and the Vanishing Cityspace
AU  - Altti Kuusamo
Y1  - 2022/05/10
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 157
EP  - 165
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221003.12
AB  - Altti Kuusamo’s article deals with the theme of loss and melancholy in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem The Swan (Le Cygne, 1859) taking seriously into account one of the central subject matters, the image of the La Place du Carrousel, which referred to the courtyard between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace and which had turned out to be a wasteland during Baudelaire’s mature work, in 1850s. In this way my article does not concentrate on the favourite subject of the flaneur in Charles Baudelaire’s poems, not even in the manner which Walter Benjamin made so fashionable. Instead, I’ll draw attention to the mental topography of the Carrousel site in Paris which seemed to be important to Baudelaire and also to his friends during 1840s. The feeling of the deserted quarters is in a way “humming” in the backyard of the Baudelaire’s poem. The motivation for my article lies in pondering why so many literary analysts of the poem, for example Walter Benjamin, Jean Starobinski, Yves Bonnefoy, Jonathan Culler, Stephanie Bundy and Ross Chambers, just to name some central literary figures, have not taken into account those images and metaphors which surround the name Carrousel in the poem. In the poem metaphors which are connected to ancient myths sweep the deserted paving stones of Place du Carrousel and illustrate the situation in which the demolition of the houses and streets of the western side of Louvre had taken place. Also the themes of loss and exile are closely tied to the central imagery of Carrousel close to Louvre.
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

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