SOURCE: Bishop, Michael. “Char's Mysticism.” In Figuring Things: Char, Ponge, and Poetry in the Twentieth Century, edited and translated by Charles D. Minahen, pp. 175-89. Lexington, Ky.: French Forum Publishers, 1994.

In the following essay, Bishop offers a thematic analysis of mysticism in Char's work.

Laissons l'énergie et retournons à l'énergie. 

(ES [Eloge d'une Soupçonnée] 7)¹

Difficulty, Rebellion, and Innocence

In a poet whose work has to such a compelling degree stressed actuality and engagement, the difficulties and divisions of history, and the need for ethical, even political intervention à ras de terre, it may seem more than paradoxical to invite consideration of his œuvre as an “act and place” of what I have termed mysticism. Certainly, like Rimbaud—I am thinking of his brouillon from Une Saison en enfer, “Bonr”—Char can swiftly dismiss, as he does in “Eaux-mères” from Le Marteau sans maître, a...