Le vertige de l`hyperbole`: Baudelaire, longinus and the poetics of excess

Abstract

In `Théodore de Banville`, Baudelaire highlights hyperbole as the very marrow of modern lyric as it speaks to the very spirit of the word lyre, `l`ardente vitalité spirituelle`. In fact, leafing through Les fleurs du mal, one can readily find hyperboles which inspire in the reader the affective intensity of le vertige, a word that recurs in Baudelaire`s poetical works. Nevertheless, whilst hyperbole occurs frequently in his poems and is central to his affective poetics, the scholarship on his poetical use of hyperbole is skimpy. The aim of this paper is therefore twofold. First, it seeks to do justice to Baudelaire`s keen engagement in hyperbole. There are few Baudelaire critics who have called attention to his taste for hyperbole; moreover, in attending to the issue they show only lukewarm interest. Second, in paying sufficient attention to his fascination with hyperbole, this paper also aims to cast light on how Baudelaire impregnates his hyperboles with Longinian phantasia, `image-production`, to practise the Romantic - subjective and affective - expression of beauty fully. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.