'Au meilleur de soi': Yves Bonnefoy and the Making of Baudelaire

Abstract

Yves Bonnefoy has singled out Baudelaire as a primary formative influence. The breadth and depth of critical enquiry afforded by Bonnefoy to his predecessor over the decades are attested by two substantial collections of his essays compiled in later years, as well as by verse resonating on occasion with the other’s name and voice. Bonnefoy’s goal is at once scholarly and creative: not only does he explore the full import of Baudelaire’s poetic legacy and lend it lasting pertinence within the history of literary endeavour, he also seeks to enter actively into its struggle, uncovering in its contradictions and aporias a corrective and recuperative dynamics that is played out anew in his own poetic writing as part of a larger and pressing ‘refondation de l’être’.