Before this little French fils snaps, I wonder if anyone out there
has any information or informed speculation about the nature of the
corpse in Baudelaire`s "Une Charogne"..? I have read critics who
assume that it is a human corpse, and those who have assumed it is an
animal corpse (one even assumes, without mustering any evidence, that
it is the corpse of a horse); there are extant doodles by the young
and sadistic Cezanne which illustrate the poem and the corpse is
certainly a human being, probably a woman, given the kind of stuff he
was churning out at the time. But I have never read a critic who has
actually addressed the issues involved in any identification of the
corpse, no-one, as far as I know has proferred reasons for thinking
it is one thing or another. Not much to go on in the poem either:
the corpse`s legs are said to be awkwardly akimbo, "comme une femme
lubrique" - which seems to have guided Cezanne`s pencil even as it
probably rules out the possibility that it is a woman.
Any reflections would be gratefully recieved.
all best
robin
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