Aspects of the life and work of Rene Ghil

Abstract

After a prefatorial note on the literary atmosphere of the time, the first chapter of this thesis outlines the life and literary career of Rene Ghil and indicates his personal relations with Mallarme, Verhaeren, Vlele-Griffin and Stuart Merrill together with his general attitude towards symbolism. The interest is then concentrated on certain of Ghil's works. His first publication La Legende d'Ames et de Sangs which brought him into the literary foreground, is discussed. The next phase of Ghil's development which covered Le Geste Ingenu and ia Traite du Verbe reveals how deeply he was influenced by allarme. The importance of these works among the earliest publications of the Symbolist school is noted. The fourth chapter records the bresk with Mallarme. Le Meilleur Devenir which appeared shortly afterwards is considered as an example of Ghil's scientific poetry. His views on scientific poetry - both as regards material and methods of expression are investigated and Ghil's place among the scientific poets of France is discussed. In the following chapter the introduction into Ghil's poetry of modern industrial life and of the depopulation of the countryside is studied. This theme leads to a comparison with similar aspects of Varhaeren's work. We next survey the strange fascination of the Orient and of Java in particular, which is noticeable in many of Ghfil's writings and in Le Pantoun des Pantoun especially. A chapter on Ghil's attitude towards nature whilst developing points made in previous chapters leads to an examination of Chil's cosmic verse. The last chapter summerises the aspects of Ghil's verse and indicates his importance in the literature of his time. Ghil's influence, often transitory in the development of the writers concerned, is found to fall into three main periods and to spread to many countries point of comparison between Poe and Ghil are noted in an Appendix. The question of the colouration of vowels, and of English translations of some of Ghil's poems form the subject of other Appendices.