Une « science » de la durée

Although Paul Valéry’s lack of interest—if not outright contempt—for literary history is by now well known, as is his rather singular conception of reading, this article argues for the importance of reexamining the many texts in which he positions himself first as a reader of nineteenth-century French poetry. A constant preoccupation of Valéry’s when reviewing Hugo, Baudelaire or Mallarmé (among several others) is the capacity of any given text to resist at once its reader and the unavoidable flight of time. At stake in Valéry’s meditation, as this article demonstrates, is what he comes to label as a “science” of duration (durée)

Art · Contempt · History of literature · Humanities · Linguistics · Literature · Poetry · Reading (process · Diverse Cultural and Historical Studies · French Literature and Poetry · Historical and Literary Studies · Law · Philosophy