When I received my home stay assignment, I was excited to
learn I would be living on Rue Charles Baudelaire. It sounded quintessentially
French, and important. Before coming to Paris I had only heard of Baudelaire in
class a handful of times, and I wasn’t positive as to who he was and why he is
a significant French figure. In the last week of being here, I have heard his
name thrown around in the beginning of our philosophy course and during our
excursions; we even visited his gravesite at Cimètere du Montparnasse. Clearly,
he is a significant figure in French society whose name will continue to pop up
throughout my stay in Paris and beyond. Thus, I decided to collect a little
background information on Baudelaire.
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet, writer, and art critic
who had a significant influence on French literature, as well as English
literature. Les Fleurs du Mal was his
most celebrated collection of poems. His work was focused on expressing the
changes happening during the modernization and industrialization of Paris in
the 19th century. To represent this process, Baudelaire coined the
term “modernity”, one of the main terms used this quarter in our philosophy
course. The history of Baudelaire’s life is very interesting, and reading
through a brief biography of Baudelaire helped to give context to the man who’s
name I have been hearing so often over the past week.
In reading through his biography I also came across another
interesting fact, he was baptized at the church of Saint Sulpice. This fact in
itself isn’t all that groundbreaking, however I found this fact to be
intriguing. Earlier this week as I was
wandering around with a few other DePaul students after lunch when we stumbled
upon this church. Inside we found a tribute to St. Vincent DePaul who helped to
find the church. It was in that moment that it became apparent to me the
abundance of history in this city. It has only been a little over one week and
I am already finding myself piecing together the connections between the places
I’ve visited and significant historical figures and events. I’m genuinely
excited to see what I will discover in another 10 weeks of exploring and
learning in a city so rich with history.
A few months before I headed out to Paris, I somehow acquired a copy of Sartre's "Baudelaire". Though I hadn't been farmiliar with his work, I definately got the sense that he was some sort of important figure in France. Being that Sartre actually took the time to write an entire book criticizing this guy, I figured this to be true.
ReplyDeleteAs we walked through the Cemetery at Montparnasse, we passed the statue of Charles Baudelaire. I was immediately struck by this bizarre figure. It was haunting and intriguing, and made me think. At this point, i'd heard this name, I'd recognized him as important, but at that moment, I realized that he was not a figure to ignore.
The next day I bought Fleurs du Mal from a street vender along the Siene. it really is quite lovely, and I would definitely recommend.