Abstract EN:

To Baudelaire belief in progress entails three forms of degradation which are inseparable. While he exercises a creative energy hard to find in modern society, he is also conscious of the Evil which this involves, and which awakens in him a feeling of guilt. But because to him the Evil is inherent in the whole of Nature, this sense of remorse confirms his moral superiority over the partisans of progress, with their faith in the original goodness of Man and Nature. Seeking like-minded spirits who share his sense of dereliction, the poet attempts to establish with them a harmonious community which he contrasts with the social disorders of the nineteenth century. Thus the first part of this treatise aims to clarify the ways in which the poet resists a society besotted with progress, aesthetically, morally, and socially degraded. The second part, however, demonstrates that this resistance always ends in failure. As his pursuit of the ideal only leads to a realization of its impossibility, so the sympathy which he feels for others breaks down the moment he encounters their true image. In the face of this dilemma of resistance, there is no ultimate solution, only a perpetual repetition. The third part examines his reactions to the art of his age. By scrutinizing his relations with the artistic developments of the age, especially progressivist art and realism, one can trace how his hostility to progress is reflected in his own poetic and critical practice.