Livre d'Artiste, Critical Instrument, Performance: Stephanie Mallarme and the Book

The subject of this dissertation is Stephane Mallarme's life long theoretical engagement with the "Book" and his role as a pioneer of the "artist's book." Mallarme's contribution embodies two distinct trajectories: the deluxe limited edition livre d'artiste and the more utopian livre d'avant garde which he characterizes as a critical "instrument" that could liberate readers by demanding their creative participation. I argue that Mallarme's seemingly contradictory objectives reflect the peculiar challenges of fin-de-siecle artistic culture that shunned yet thrived on modern developments in publishing. This dissertation offers a new reading of Mallarme by challenging the traditional characterization of him as an "ivory tower" poet. Although books are inherently a private medium, I demonstrate that Mallarme's ambitions were ultimately public in nature because he envisioned the "instrument"-book as empowering readers and transforming everyday life. Within the context of nineteenth-century discourse, I examine closely the particular semantic inflections of the term "book." Influenced by Baudelaire and other literary figures, the book is initially conceived by Mallarme as a heroic protest against commercialized forms of publications such as the album, the serial novel, or the daily newspaper. As the poet developed his theories, however, he ultimately sought to integrate certain structures of mass media to create a book that could engage the latent creative potential of a diversified reading public. This dissertation also offers a rigorous analysis of illustrated texts by clarifying the distinctions between different genres of nineteenth-century illustrated publications. Without exception, an of the artists whom Mallarme asked to contribute to his books were peintre-graveurs or "original" printmakers rather than professional illustrators or technically-trained engravers. This categorical distinction reflects not only particular values associated with images and image making to which Mallarme subscribed, but it entailed specific printing practices and independent publishing venues that proved useful to a poet rejected from traditional literary publishing houses. As such, Mallarme emerges in my study as both utopian idealist and as a writer who understood the role publishing played in sustaining the careers of avant-garde artists and writers.