ABSTRACT
This conclusive chapter focuses on some aspects of the social representation of the artist that had an impact on the construction of the Romantic myth of the artist. A sociopoetical perspective is adopted here as a complementary approach to distinguish elements that played an important role in the shaping of the myth on the textual level. The notion of artistic genius as a physical phenomenon and the impact of physiology and phrenology in the shaping of the artist as a fictional figure are discussed. This chapter then considers the recurrent images of the poet as an element of nature and as a gigantic dominating figure. The way these images shape the metaphors of self-representation and the ways of representing the artist’s interaction with nature are examined. As a last example, the chapter focuses on Napoleon’s presence in this mythmaking, and its effects on the image of the artist as a fighter, a visionary, and as the equivalent of a powerful figure in the socio-political field.
