Publisher's Synopsis
Secret, beyond classification, elusive: these judgements are frequently penned by commentators of the poet and essayist of Belgian origin, Henri Michaux, to the point that his readers have been deprived of a better understanding of his work and historical impact.In order to get beyond this impasse, it is necessary to situate the author and his work in the literature of his time. One thus discovers a Michaux very different from that of legend: quick to talk about his era, attentive to the literature of his contemporaries and anxious to differentiate himself from them. Confronted by such a gap between a period and later critical comments on it, we have wanted to understand what made possible the emergence and imposition of this critical reception. The investigation has not confined itself to a discourse analysis applied to the poet, but has also taken into account Michaux's interventions. One thus sees how, from the Liberation onwards, and in a context of heightened politicization, Michaux worked to make himself elusive. Covering the first decades of Michaux's literary career, this study shows in what circumstances a poet who wanted to situate himself in the literature of his time became progressively elusive. French text.
