In "the Carcass," it is important to note that as Lainey mentioned in her blog post, Baudelaire's work is within the realm of Romanticism. This is clearest to me by noting that in a poem like "the Carcass," Baudelaire immortalizes his work. He glorifies himself and his poetry by depicting it as something that is everlasting and undying, which he predicted to be true as we persist to read it today. The idea of the immortalization of poetry is definitely a fair comparison to note among many Romantic authors, especially those we studied last year like Shelley and Keats.
There are many things lost in translation, of course, but for the most part, Baudelaire is yet another example of a European Romantic ahead of his time. Something that for me sets Baudelaire apart, however, is his being French. Being French, I could only imagine, is very different from being British, and having that diversity in identity sets Baudelaire's work apart from others at his time.
P.S. I'll include a nice photo of Paris above because it's beautiful and Baudelaire is French. ;)
2 comments:
Baudelaire is by all accounts a romantic artist, and this becomes all the more clear when we look at his writing from a rationalistic or enlightenment. His poems are based in anything but reality, and the emotional and backwards way he views things goes against the rules of rationalism. He juxtaposes horrible and beautiful things and related them to each other, something that wouldn't naturally adhere to the rationalistic point of view. Also, his focus on the emotional impact of his writings rather than the intelligent or logical impact directly separates him from both enlightenment mode of thinking and rationalism. Like Dostoevsky, he sees that society is loosing touch with their humanity and falling into apathy, so he hopes to shock them back into reality with his poetry.
As Elise pointed out, Baudelaire can be compared to Dostoevsky, as his condemnation of the modern man sets him aside from the utilitarian or rational viewpoints of that time. Both emphasize the idea of apathy accompanying the "progress" of man, just as TS Eliots does in his poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
The beauty of "A Carcass", as Gabby said, is the fact that he uses the style of Romanticism to address his dark and repulsive reactions.
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