SOURCE: Houston, John Porter. “Modes of Symbolism in René Char's Poetry.” French Forum 10, no. 3 (September 1985): 339-54.

In the following essay, Houston examines themes, images, and symbols in selected works of René Char.

The three most helpful books on Char's work are concerned with tracing the evolution of his poetics, themes, and images.¹ I intend to focus here on poetic structures, how symbols inform them, and the attendant problems in reading. The poems discussed all date from Fureur et mystère (1948) on and are mostly prose poems. I have left aside the aphorisms and do not attempt to fit the poems into any historical pattern, although a careful reader of Char can readily sense the existence of one. Since the Orion myth in Char has received much attention, I have not concerned myself with it. On the other hand, I have tried to discuss as many difficult texts as...