Grotesque lyric: tensions in the poetry of Aloysius Bertrand

Abstract

The work of Aloysius Bertrand, Gaspard de la Nuit, was one of the forerunners of the prose poem in France. Set in the Middle Ages, Bertrand builds a picturesque poetry, which carries within it the popular imagination of Burgundy, where the poet lived. His poems evoke realistic and grotesque scenes, fleeing to traditional forms of lyricism, still used in the prelude of romanticism. The presence of the lyric voice is very striking in his poetry, demonstrating a very subtle form of subjectivity, however, is innovative in that it escapes the biographism so common to the lyric of this period.