ABSTRACT

This chapter explores that in Stephane Mallarme's writings visual and textual motifs can in certain instances be seen to work in synergy towards an aesthetic solution to the psychological needs of all members of society. Three distinct but interrelated groups of texts are examined in turn: Mallarme's art criticism in defence of Manet (1874 and 1876), his innovative twenty-four-page poem 'Un Coup de des' (1897) and his short-lived home decoration and fashion periodical La Derniere Mode (1874). The art critic T. J. Clark offers a comprehensive argument that Manet and the Impressionists did not succeed in adequately portraying late nineteenth-century Parisian modernity because they failed to furnish an accurate representation of class. The chapter shows how Mallarme's ability to recuperate from Impressionism the visual depiction of authentic aspects of human experience in a society that was struggling to come to terms with political and aesthetic changes is taken a step further in his revolutionary twenty-four-page poem 'Un Coup de des'.