Facets: The Book in the Work of Stephane Mallarme

FAIN: FB-50364-04

Anna Sigridur Arnar
Moorhead State University (Moorhead, MN 56563-0001)

"Facets" is a book-length study on the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé's diverse engagement with the concept of the book. The book was thoroughly entrenched in Mallarmé's writings and practice; it is not simply an abstract ideal but also an independent entrepreneurial venture, an art object, a theatrical performance, and a "bomb" designed to make way for a new society. Although a handful of studies have examined a single development of Mallarmé's engagement with the book, nobody has linked these individual developments and recognized the interrelated character of this multi-faceted ambition. In addition to providing a compelling model for examining the utopian and practical manifestations of the book in Mallarmeé's work, I situate this singular obsession within a larger historical framework of the debates that informed fin-de-siècle culture-a culture that simultaneously shunned yet thrived on reproductive technologies and modern developments in publishing. My project will be especially valuable because it responds to fundamental gaps in existing scholarship. Unlike for other French writers, there exist no full-scale art historical studies devoted to Mallarmé despite his sustained interaction with the visual arts. As an art historian with expertise in nineteenth-century French print culture, I will contribute a unique reading of Mallarmé's work, particularly with respect to the material dimension of his literary practice. For example, Mallarmé was one of the first French literary figures to tap into the expanding network of fine arts printmaking to publish his own books. Moreover, he played a fundamental role in forging a new category of the modern book known as the "painter's book" at a time when most writers, including Mallarmé, were adamantly opposed to illustration. Finally, I contribute new and compelling scholarship concerning the impact of mass media on the poet's theories of reading and looking.

Associated Products

The Book as Instrument: Stéphane Mallarmé, The Artist's Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture (Book)
Title: The Book as Instrument: Stéphane Mallarmé, The Artist's Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture
Author: Anna Sigridur Arnar
Abstract: Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–98) was a French Symbolist poet, theorist, and teacher whose ideas and legendary salons set the stage for twentieth-century experimentation in poetry, music, theater and art. A canonical figure in the legacy of modernism, Mallarmé was also a lifelong champion of the book as both a literary endeavor and a carefully crafted material object. In The Book as Instrument, Anna Sigrídur Arnar explores how this object functioned for Mallarmé and his artistic circle, arguing that the book became a strategic site for encouraging a modern public to actively partake in the creative act, an an idea that informed later twentieth-century developments such as conceptual and performance art. Arnar demonstrates that Mallarmé was invested in creating radically empowering reading experiences, and the diverse modalities he proposed for both reading and looking anticipate interactive media prevalent in today’s culture. In describing the world of books, visual culture, and mass media of the late nineteenth century, Arnar touches upon an array of themes that continues to preoccupy us in our own moment, including speculations on the future of the book. Enhanced by gorgeous illustrations, The Book as Instrument is sure to fascinate anyone interested in the ever-vibrant experiment between word and image that makes the page and the multi-sensory pleasures of reading.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo5886904.html
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: # 0226027015,

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