Title: Baudelaire and caricature : from the comic to an art of modernity /
Authors: Hannoosh, Michèle, 1954-
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Baudelaire, Charles, Philosophy.; Caricature History; Modernism (Art)
Abstract: "Baudelaire's essays on caricature offered the first sustained defense of the value of caricature as a serious art, worthy of study in its own right. This book argues for the crucial importance of the essays for his conception of modernity, so fundamental to the subsequent history of modernism. From the theory of the comic formulated in De l'essence du rire to his discussions of Daumier, Goya, Hogarth, Cruikshank, Bruegel, Grandville, Gavarni, Charlet, and many others, Baudelaire develops not only an aesthetic of caricature but also a caricatural aesthetic--dual and contradictory, grotesque, ironic, violent, farcical, fantastic, and fleeting--that defines an art of modern life." "In particular, Baudelaire's insistence on the dualism and ambiguity of laughter has radical implications for such emblems of modernity as the city and the flaneur who roams its streets.^
Contents: 1. Baudelaire's Theory of the Comic: De l'essence du rire. The Scope of the Comic. Le rire est satanique, il est donc profondement humain. The Theory of Superiority. Knowledge, Civilization, and the Comic. The Types of the Comic. Examples and Exempla. The Paradox of the Comic Artist -- 2. Quelques caricaturistes francais. Vernet, Pigal, and Charlet. Daumier. Monnier, Grandville, and Gavarni. Trimolet and Travies -- 3. Quelques caricaturistes etrangers. Hogarth, Seymour, and Cruikshank. Goya. Leonardo and Pinelli. Bruegel. Pieces retrouvees: Hood and Rethel -- 4. The Comic and Modernity. The Salon de 1846. The Dualism of Art. The Dualism of Man. Cosmopolitanism and Dedoublement. An Art of the City.