Description
Book SynopsisThe result is a study that underscores how Baudelaire's legacy continues to energize literary engagements with the violence of modernity.
Trade ReviewAmbitious and thought-provoking... The Violence of Modernity is an important, enlightening book. -- Susan Blood H-France 2007 A thought-provoking and carefully researched study which offers a captivating perspective on Baudelaire's poetry. -- Nicole Fayard French Studies 2008 Offers a refreshingly innovative approach not just to Baudelaire but also to broader critical interpretations of violence, modernity, irony, politics, and form. -- Helen Abbott Modern Language Review 2008 Admirable study. -- Peter Childs Symploke 2008 A major contribution to the study of Baudelaire and his influence... It has a great deal to offer not only scholars of French literature, but to anyone interested in the complex intersections between literature and history. -- Alison James Modern Philology 2009 At a time when we are more than ever encouraged to distinguish between good guys and bad guys, it is refreshing to read a work that illustrates the impossibility of such clear-cut distinctions. -- Nicole Asquith Substance 2009 One of the most solidly critically informed works in the field. -- Michael R. Finn South Central Review 2009
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Violence and Representation in Baudelaire
1. Baudelaire's Victims and Executioners: From the Symptoms of Trauma to a Critique of Violence
2. Passages from Form to Politics: Baudelaire's Le Spleen de Paris
3. Bodies in Motion, Texts on Stage: Baudelaire's Women and the Forms of Modernity
Part II: Unlikely Contestations: Baudelaire's Legacy Revisited
4. Matter's Revenge on Form: Bad Girls Talk Back
5. Broken Engagements: Albert Camus and the Poetics of Terror
Afterword
Notes
Works Cited
Index
