Paris as Bazaar: Tristan Corbiere's 'Poetry of the city'

This article shows how Corbiere's Paris poetry in Les Amours jaunes (1873) evokes the destabilizing quality of city life. Combining close textual analysis with examination of the socio-economic context, it surveys his parodic versions of stereotypical prostitute and flaneur figures, and shows how his condensed urban landscapes reflect his fragmented subjects, particularly his poet personae. It then focuses on his representation of the difficulties facing poets in the marketplace, and argues that his ironic clash of discourses represents both conflict between value-systems and contradictions within the bohemian milieu. It concludes that Corbiere conveys the underlying workings of urban society by dramatizing the sensation of doubt about values.