Claudel et le Symbolisme: un héritage incontournable

Among the writers belonging to the 'Manière Symboliste', for whom Claudel sometimes expresses a certain contempt, due to their lack of originality, the great maitres of French Symbolism - Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Mallarmé - represent in Claudel's opinion some admirable figures, not only from the poetic point of view, but also from the humain one. They were able in fact to oppose to the Positivistic culture of their time, a new vision of reality, animated by the nostalgia for a different dimension, preparing the way to a new sensibility. Nevertheless, the heritage of these authors drives inevitably to a 'cul-de-sac', which the XXth century feels the urgency of overcoming.