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Camille Mauclair: life and work 1890-1909

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Date
1973
Author
Marchbank, Alan M.
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Abstract
 
 
CHAPTER ONE relates all the known facts concerning Mauclair's parentage and family circumstances, his childhood and adolescence, from his birth in 1872 until 1890, the date of his entry into the Symbolist milieux. His early friendships, activities and first published work are described.
 
CHAPTER TWO concerns his life in the period 1891 to 1893 when he was most of all one of the younger generation Symbolists. The growth of his contributions to the Symbolist reviews is described, as are his important friendships with other writers and artists both young and old. His life at this time is often examined through un- published letters, especially those, of paramount importance, which he wrote to Gide and to Mallarmé. His involvement with Paul Fort's 'Théâtre d'Art' and Lugné -Poe's ' Théâtre de l'Oeuvre' is outlined. Equally significant facts concerning his material circumstances, his financial worries and his ill health are considered.
 
CHAPTER THREE : His early ideas, seen primarily in reviews, are discussed : his poetry and views on contemporary poets; his work in prose, short stories or 'contes'; his ideas on, and activities in the theatre; and his theories expressed in essays on individualism, idealism and anarchism.
 
CHAPTER FOUR : Bound up with the early years was the production of Mauclair's first separate works : the small but significant Conférence sur Stéphane Mallarmé; the larger volume of symbolist theorising, Eleusis, causeries sur la cité intérieure. This chapter sets out what is known of the genesis of these works, analyses their content and relates them to earlier writing by Mauclair.
 
CHAPTER FIVE advances the description of Mauclair's life from late 1893 until 1897. The central event of these years was a sentimental crisis which involved Mauclair, Maeterlinck and Georgette Leblanc. The evidence to support this interpretation of events is set out, and the suggestion is made, supported by comments from correspondence, that this crisis was a determining factor in Mauclair's decision to abandon the outer trappings of Symbolism and to turn to new styles of life and writing.
 
CHAPTER SIX analyses the articles and books published by Mauclair between 1894 and 1898. The former reflect the gradual changing of their author's attitudes, whereas the latter, because of publishing delays, are largely a product of the Symbolist years. The poetry of earlier years is to be contrasted with the content of Sonatines d'Automne, the early stories are to be compared with those of Clefs d'or. Couronne de Clarté is Mauclair's most extensive work of symbolist inspiration, and, it is suggested, is closely linked to Gide's Voyage d'Urien. The influence of such figures as Mallarmé, Villiers de l'Isle -Adam and Verlaine is to be seen, and the results of the sentimental and artistic crises described in Chapter Five begin to make themselves felt. Mauclair's later moral stance was becoming evident and is first stated in L'Orient vierge.
 
CHAPTER SEVEN : Having dealt extensively with Mauclair's Symbolist period and subsequent disenchantment, in this chapter two novels are studied s Le Soleil des morts (1898) and L'Ennemie des rives (1899). They state in romanticised form "le mal nerveux de l'époque" and "l'étude des remèdes" - the dilemmas and partial solutions of the younger generation, as Mauclair understood them. Since the first is held to be a 'roman à clefs', space is spent summarising possible identifications of the characters.
 
CHAPTER EIGHT As there was certainly a turning point in Mauclair's life in 1897, this chapter describes what is known of him afterwards, from 1898 until 1909. His attitude towards the Dreyfus Affair is examined because of the significance he clearly thought it had in the moral life of France as well as in the ' système d'idées' which he maintained he was elaborating in the many essays written at this time. Mauclair is seen through the eyes of many contemporaries by studying the documents (for the most part unpublished) assembled by G. Jean-Aubry for his short biography of Mauclair (1905). The tenor of Mauclair's life in these years is described from other sources, but most important of all is the analysis of the breakdown of his friendship with Gide.
 
CHAPTER NINE explores the enormous volume of work produced between 1898 and 1909. We observe the fluent affirmation of Mauclair's moral idealism, set out in his 'système d'idées'. Increasingly however, the conflict becomes apparent between the pressures of the vocation, leading to books of sincere artistic endeavour such as L'Art en silence, and the pressures of the 'métier', leading to innumerable articles of varying quality and to hasty volumes of art criticism and the like. Creative work, the novels, Les Mères sociales and La Ville lumière, or the poetry, Le Sang parle, also receives examination in detail.
 
CHAPTER TEN is devoted to Mauclair's art criticism in the period encompassed by the previous nine chapters. This examination of a distinct theme is given to provide a résumé of Mauclair's ideas throughout the studied period, and to underline the often divergent development of Mauclair's standards and attitudes and the attitudes and standards of the time in which he lived.
 
The CONCLUSION brings to light some information concerning Mauclair's life and work between 1909 and the time of his death in 1945.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/35144
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