Stéphane Mallarmé

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), French poet, one of the originators of the Symbolist movement. He was born in Paris and educated at the lycée in Sens. He taught English at the Lycée Fontanes, Paris, and translated literary works in English, notably the poems (1888) of the American poet Edgar Allan Poe. He used symbols to express truth through suggestion rather than by narration. His poetry and prose are characterized by a musical quality, experimental grammar, and thought that is refined and allusive to the point of obscurity. He longed to evoke an ideal beauty in poetry that might bypass conventional “meaning” with the directness of music. His best-known poems are Après-midi d’un Faune (The Afternoon of a Faun, 1876), which inspired the prelude by the French composer Claude Debussy, and Hérodiade, much of which was published posthumously. Among Mallarmé’s other writings are the anthology Vers et Prose (1893) and the volume of prose studies Divagations (Ramblings, 1897).

Although his poetic output was small, his influence on his contemporaries was considerable. He was noted for his conversation, which was as lucid as his writings were obscure. At his renowned Tuesday-night receptions at his home in Paris, his critical comments on literature, art, and music did much to stimulate the creative efforts of the French Symbolist writers and the artists and composers of the Impressionist school who were his contemporaries. All, in their way, were striving to convey the direct experience of beauty without the traditional insistence on established techniques: in this aim, they found encouragement in Mallarmé’s idealist theories.