Réminiscences “grotesques” dans les premiers recueils poétiques de Théophile Gautier

Abstract

The first poetical works of Théophile Gautier, published between 1830 and 1838, are notably influenced by his studies and his juvenile readings; several intertextual connections with contemporary authors, first of all Victor Hugo, can be observed in these poems, as well as frequent references to poets of previous periods. Gautier had a special preference for some authors of pre-classical age, on whom he wrote a number of critical articles that were initially published in thereview “La France littéraire”, and then collected in Les Grotesques; this contribution considers some themes and images of Gautier’s juvenile poems (Poésies, Albertus, Poésies diverses) that remind of works of Théophile de Viau and Marc de Saint-Amant, two pre-classical poets whose remarkable modernity he often pointed out.