An exploration of the many worlds revealed in the poetry, prose, theater, criticism, and correspondence of Charles Baudelaire over the past two centuries In this issue of Yale French Studies, editor Thomas C. Connolly invites leading experts in francophone and French studies to explore the unsuspected panoramas that continue to be revealed by the incomparable literary oeuvre of Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). Topics examined include the various worlds traversed by the poet, whether in person (Honfleur, Belgium, the Mascarenes) or in the mind; the figures of exoticism, travel, and racism in his poetic and critical writings; the global repercussions of his reflections on painting and photography; his views on society and politics, including his antisemitic pronouncements; and recent meditations on Baudelaire in the Caribbean, the Maghreb, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, whether in French or in other languages. This volume includes three original translations into English: a poem by the Syrian poet Adonis; the opening section of Baudelaire Jazz by the Martinican writer and Prix Goncourt winner Patrick Chamoiseau; and a version of Baudelaire’s great poem “Correspondances” by the Irish poet Paul Muldoon.
