Rêve d’artiste : la littérature, la musique et l’histoire de l’art dans la poésie d’Émile Nelligan
The end of the 19th century in Montreal is a time of great intellectual and cultural development, which sees the birth of new artistic currents such as impressionism and symbolism. These currents appear in many different arts of the time. Many artistic associations are created during this period, and the École littéraire de Montréal is one of the most important among them. One of the most famous members of the École is poet Émile Nelligan, who produced a great amount of work between 1896 and 1899. Through his connections with the other members of the École littéraire de Montréal, Nelligan was in contact with the cultural and artistic changes of the time, and many of his poems include references to arts other than literature, such as painting and music. Our aim is to study how the artistic currents of the time, particularly in painting and in music, appear in Nelligan’s poetry. We base our study on the approach of literary analysis by Gérard Dessons, which is based on the analysis of different literary elements and techniques that make up the poem in order to derive its meaning. We wish to bring a greater understanding of the artistic trends present in turn-of-the-century Montreal and how Nelligan uses literary techniques to incorporate the principal techniques and ideas of those artistic currents in his work. We also wish to show the transdisciplinary nature of Nelligan’s work and his great sensibility to the relationships between the arts, even if he practiced only literature during his lifetime.
Émile Nelligan École littéraire de Montréal Quebec poetry Symbolism Impressionism Painting Music 19th century Trandisciplinarity