Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898) French Symbolist Poet

Stephane Mallarme invented what he deemed the “critical poem,” a genre of theoretical text as stylistically dense and complex as his verse. In all of his writing, the distinction between “poetry” and “theory” breaks down: every text is a lesson in how language works, weaving and unweaving the poetic act itself in the process of not quite accomplishing. The materiality of the page, ink, paragraph, and spacing is just as important as the syntax, figure, and sense. It is through Mallarme’s work that influenced 20th century French theory and criticism, particularly, Roland Barthes “death of the author” and the theoretical styles of Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan.

Mallarme, Stephane. “Crisis in Poetry.” Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Eds. Leitch et al. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. Inc. 2001, 845-851.

Leitch, Vincent B. et al. Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2001.