The Perversion of the Canon and the Creation of the Sinister Universe in Le Spleen de Paris, by Charles Baudelaire

Authors

  • Álvaro López Ithurbide Universidad del Salvador

Keywords:

Baudelaire, evil, sinister, dream, reversion, mythical

Abstract

In La Littérature et le Mal, the French thinker Georges Bataille emphasizes the annulment of any principle opposed to Evil in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Framing this idea, the posthumous work of Charles Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris (1869), will be analyzed in this article from the conception of a universe governed by Evil, whose offspring is a perverse copy of the ancient universe ruled by the duality of Good and Evil. From this premise, the poet is free to create a mythicalsinisterworld, transfiguring and perverting popular concepts, literary canons, and topics; resignifying symbols and metaphors,and degenerating myths and legends, with the freedom to not create them in opposition to Good, as it is absent, but generated as a perverse simile from Evil itself. A critic of the progress and modernity of his time, Charles Baudelaire dedicated himself to the task of exhuming the Evil that lies beneath the depths of a blind and artificial society, conceiving a poetic and aesthetic workarising from Ennui. 

Author Biography

Álvaro López Ithurbide, Universidad del Salvador

In La Littérature et le Mal, the French thinker Georges Bataille emphasizes the annulment of any principle opposed to Evil in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Framing this idea, the posthumous work of Charles Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris (1869), will be analyzed in this article fromthe conception of a universe governed by Evil, whose offspring is a perverse copy of the ancient universe ruled by the duality of Good and Evil. From this premise, the poet is free to create a mythicalsinister world, transfiguring and perverting popular concepts, literary canons, and topics; resignifying symbols and metaphors, and degenerating myths and legends, with the freedom to notcreate them in opposition to Good, as it is absent, but generated as a perverse simile from Evil itself. A critic of the progress and modernity of his time, Charles Baudelaire dedicated himself to the task of exhuming the Evil that lies beneath the depths of a blind and artificial society, conceiving a poetic and aesthetic work arising from Ennui.

References

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Oyarzún Robles, P. (2001). Nota preliminar. En C. Baudelaire, El spleen de París. Pequeños poemas en prosa. Bibliografía de la cátedra de Literatura Francesa II de la Universidad del Salvador.

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Published

2026-06-02

How to Cite

López Ithurbide, Álvaro. (2026). The Perversion of the Canon and the Creation of the Sinister Universe in Le Spleen de Paris, by Charles Baudelaire. Gramma , 37(76). Retrieved from https://p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/gramma/article/view/7632

Issue

Vol. 37 No. 76 (2026)

Section

INVESTIGACIÓN

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