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DIMENSIONS OF PAST AND FUTURE IN RIMBAUD'S "ILLUMINATIONS"
Abstract
Although there exists a voluminous body of critical material on Rimbaud, there has been no systematic study done to date of temporality in his works. Since a comprehension of an author's perceptions of time is crucial to an understanding of his consciousness, we have undertaken a systematic examination of the functions of past and future in the Illuminations. The primary critical approach used in this study is phenomenological, although we borrow freely from structuralist methodology, in order to reinforce our interpretations and avoid oversimplification or reductivism. We divide the poems into two categories: the "subjective" poems, which refer strictly to terrestrial phenomena; and the "mythical" poems, in which the poet treats of suprahuman personages or events. We define time in phenomenological terms as a creation of the will that seeks to impose an order upon the chaos of the world. Our definition includes such dimensions as value judgement, will, effort, self-actualization, participation in the world, and the need for transcendence. Our examination of the past in the "subjective" poems reveals that the poet perceives himself as a victim of negative experiences that trap him in the present and cut off his links with the future. Since he lacks the necessary will to transform his memories in a creative way, and since he sees himself as cut off from sources of transcendent wisdom, he languishes in a state of spiritual exile which can be only intermittently "illuminated." The "mythical" poems treating of the past do not serve any ameliorative function, but express the poet's lack of faith in human progress. Because of his perception of human duration as deterioration and spiritual entropy, the poet has a profound need to perpetuate privileged moments of absolute newness and absolute potential, but in his experience the virtual cannot be made actual, nor can abiding form be given to the vision. The pessimistic perceptions of the future expressed in the Illuminations contrast sharply with the optimistic view of the future of poetry expressed in the "Voyant" letters. There is a very restrained use of the future tense, and future events are usually framed in an interrogative or negative way. Although some of the "mythical" poems express hope for a utopian future, the predominant tone is one of despair, since the poet regards the future not as the domain of actualization of present potential, but as a temporal dimension to which he has no permanent positive access. We conclude that Rimbaud's original subjective experience was the insufficiency of reality and hence the inadequacy of human love, work and time. He invested his whole self in the enterprise of poetry for he felt that it could literally transform life, but he ultimately abandoned it because he realized that it could not replace action, love, or an authentic value system. Rimbaud's poems reflect the problems faced by modern man in his attempts to create a meaningful sense of being and of continuity in a world where the traditional bases for such creation have been severely undermined. The Illuminations testify to a prodigious struggle of the mind to discover new sources of ultimate meaning, as they reveal a unique spirit and imagination where somehow beauty was born and took shape as words.
Subject Area
Romance literature
Recommended Citation
SATLOW, ELLEN KEILSON, "DIMENSIONS OF PAST AND FUTURE IN RIMBAUD'S "ILLUMINATIONS"" (1980). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8100778.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8100778