By Joachim Agou

Paul Valery

Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry

October 30, 1871 (Sete) – July 20, 1945 (Paris) (73)

French poet, essayist, critic and philosopher

Polymath : Poetry, fiction, essays, art, history, letters, music

Biography

Corsican father and Genoese mother Born in Sete (France) (1871), Raised in

Montpellier Traditional Roman Catholic education

(Dominican Order) Study of law at university (1889) Move to Paris (1894) He married Jeannie Gobillard, a niece of

the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot (1900)

Become a full-time writer (1920) Election to the Académie Française (1925)

Biography (cont.)

Founded the Collège International de Cannes, a private institution teaching French language and civilization (1931)

Member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon

Appointed chief executive of the University of Nice

Refuse to collaborate with Vichy and the German occupation (WWII)

Valéry died in Paris in 1945

Work

Valéry is best known as a poet He published fewer than a hundred poems Throughout his life Valéry filled his private

notebooks with observations on creative process and his own methods of inquiry.

"Enthusiasm is not an artist's state of mind” .He insisted that the mental process of creation was alone important - the poems were a by-product of the effort.

The night of 4 October 1892, Paul Valéry underwent an existential crisis.

In 1892 Valéry experienced the "revolution of the mind"

Valéry's only publications of note were dialogues, articles, some poems, and a study of Leonardo Da Vinci

Work (cont.)

“Charmes ou Poemes”(1922) Valéry attained the status of most significant contemporary French poet

His most famous poem “Le Cimetière marin”. The poet meditates as he looks at the cemetery by the sea at Sete .

Valéry's technique is quite orthodox in its essentials.

His verse rhymes and scans in conventional ways

Albert Einstein respected Valéry's thinking and became friendly correspondents.

Work (The Notebooks)

The notebooks “Cahiers” : Valéry's most striking achievement.

The subjects of his Cahiers entries often are, reflections on science and mathematics.

The Cahiers also contain the first drafts of many aphorisms he later included in his books

“Having dedicated those hours to the life of the mind, I thereby earn the right to be stupid for the rest of the day” P.V.

The crisis of the mind

“We later civilizations . . . we too know that we are mortal.”

Written in 1919, after the World War I European Civilization is in peril Military crisis, economical crisis, and mainly

Intellectual crisis. Knowledge is powerless, Science is disgraced, Believes

are confused. What a civilization ? Question of cultural and ethical values What can we do to subdue the Crisis? What does characterize the European culture and

modernity ? … The disorder in the mind of Europe? Do have to propagate the European spirit ? What about the future of the European Civilization?

Idixa.net , http://www.idixa.net/Pixa/pagixa-0611071138.html

Uqac (Universite du Quebec), http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/Valery_paul/crise_de_lesprit/crise_de_lesprit.html

"Paul Valéry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Jun 2009, 06:58 UTC. 14 Jun 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Val%C3%A9ry&oldid=296310202

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