Matches and mismatches between subject, object and politics in Rimbaud

boundaries between theory and social life

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the centrality of Rimbaud's poetics for studies of the poetic subject in contemporary times. Based on a review of Dominique Combe's ideas on the relationship between the lyrical subject and the biographical subject, and of Michel Collot's and his concept of the lyrical subject outside of oneself, the aim is, first, to understand how the French poet functions as a pivotal point for both authors. Second, through literary analysis, it aims to expose how the relationship of his work to politics, specifically to the Paris Commune, as explained by Kristin Ross, requires a theoretical shift in both terms, in order to understand poetic possibilities in the 20th century.