Valéry: The Poetics and Phenomenology of Night

Author(s): Paul Ryan

Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 102, No. 3 (Jul., 2007), pp. 687-700
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20467428
Accessed: 13-12-2015 03:26 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern
Language Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 VALERY: THE POETICS AND
PHENOMENOLOGY OF NIGHT

Valery, the poet traditionally associated with dawn and the archetypal Mediter
ranean landscape of 'Midi le juste" does not automatically spring tomind in
thecontextof nocturnalexperienceand sensibility.
Night, the solar,psycho
logical, and imaginary antipode of high noon, which appears in the writer's
celebrated verse poetry and engages several of his essential mythic figurations,
such as Teste, Narcissus, and the Parque, is a thematic to which he devoted
Valeryan criticismhas to date viewed thenoctur
veryconsiderable reflection.
nal functionfroma poetic andmetaphysicalperspective,focusingprimarilyon
themysticismand symbolismof darkness.2 One importantdimension thathas
been largelyoverlooked,however,is thephenomenologicalperceptionand con
sciousnessofnightand darkness,coupledwith theirstrongpoetico-ontological
overtones,which Valery expressedalternatelyinprose textsand scientifically
oriented reflections across the Cahiers.3 It is by delving into the vast corpus
of these private notebooks, ritually kept every morning for over fiftyyears
fromI894 to 1945, thatthe interrelation
betweenpublished and unpublished
perspectives can be equitably and comprehensively ascertained.4 Using a com
parative approach, this article intends to give a more complete picture of this
thematicby revisitingpreviouslyexamineddimensionsand revealinghow the
private empirical and perceptual basis underpins and indeed informs its poetic
articulation.
It is important first of all to recall the early period inwhich the thematic of
night has its genesis. The physical and material writing context, in conjunc
tion with the themes of waiting, perception, and self-observation in the dark
or dimly lit room, so commonly evoked in the Cahiers, can be traced back to
Valery's earliest poetry. As a precursor to some of these major themes, nu
merous texts in the collection of poems Une chambre conjecturale,5 such as 'Je
regarde souvent la nuit constellee' or 'Minuit', detail the poetics of night, rang
ing from consciousness of contiguous space around the writer to the external
nocturnalrealm.This thematicalso significantly
pre-datesthe illuminativeand
mythically remembered 'Nuit de Genes' of i8926 (later referred to as the 'Nuit
glacee, archi-pure' (C, VII, 575)) that had a decisive impact on the twenty-one
1
Paul Val?ry, uvres compl?tes, 2 vols, ed. by Jean Hytier (Paris: Gallimard, 1957-60), 1, 147.
Hereafter OC.
2
Serge Bourjea, 'La fonction nocturne dans l'imaginaire val?ryen', Bulletin des ?tudes val?ry
ennes, 10 (1976), 32-49.
3
Cahiers, 29 vols in facsimile (Paris: CNRS, 1957-61). Hereafter C followed by volume and
page number; all emphasis isVal?ry's.
4 The a selection of
bulk of Val?ry's thought lies primarily in the 27,000 pages of the Cahiers,
which is now accessible in English since the publication of Paul Val?ry, Cahiers/Notebooks, 2 vols
to date, ed. by Brian Stimpson, Paul Gifford, and Robert Pickering (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2000).
Volumes in, iv, and v are to appear in 2007.
5 Paul
Val?ry, Une chambre conjecturale, ed. by Agathe Rouart-Val?ry (Montpellier: Fata Mor
gana, 1981). This collection contains poems written by Val?ry as a teenager, from around 1888
onwards.
6
This personal 'coup d'?tat en [i8]92' (C, viii, 762) took place in Genoa on the night of 4-5
October 1892, during which a massive storm shook his sensibility, and which he described in

Modern Language Review, 102 (2007), 687-700

C Modern Humanities Research Association 2007

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 688 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

year-old Valery, notably initiating the Cahiers and the famous 'System' that he
devised in thehope of findinga unitaryand scientifically
expressedparadigm
('la Geometrie du Tout' (C, x, io6)) ofmental functioning.
BeforeValery embarkedon thisveritableascesis of pure thought,pursued
through a rigorous regime of analysis and writing, the sensibility of the young
aesthete of the late i88os and early I8gos was profoundly influenced by amythi
cal and mystico-religious poetic that placed him very much in continuity with
the Symbolist tradition,particularlywith his predecessorMallarme, whose
work he discovered in i 889 and whom he came to admire above all writers.7
While both poets gravitated towards opposite ends of the solar cycle,8 it is not
surprising that theMallarmean metaphysical symbolism of night left itsmark
on much of Valery's earliest prose: the posthumously published Conte vraisem
blable (OC, ii, I417-2I), the verse poetry of the Album de vers anciens,9 Douze
poemes (such as 'Odelette nocturne' (OC, i, I699-70)), and a whole host of
poems written between I887 and i890.10
Mallarme's Coup de des, which Valery was the first person to see, imme
diately comes tomind as a representation of the celestial universe by way of
what Valery called a 'spectacle ideographique' (OC, i, 627) or the typographical
disposition of writing on the white page that he endeavoured to elevate to the
'puissance du ciel etoile' (OC, i, 626)." Henceforth, the sight of the night sky is
inextricably linked toMallarme's celebrated poems, as the late text 'Station sur
la terrasse' from the Cahiers clearly illustrates: 'Et scintillent dans le ciel de nuit
poetique les constellations, seulement soumises aux lois de l'Univers du Lan
gage, qui se levent, se couchent, reparaitront ... La, Herodiade, l'Apres-midi,
leTombeau de Gautier' (C, xxv, 6i8). During a visit toMallarme's residence at
Valvins in the summer of I897 (the last time the two poets met), Valery recalls
with great affection their nocturnal walk under the canopy of the constellations
('l'innombrable ciel de juillet enfermant toutes choses dans un groupe etincelant
d'autres mondes' (OC, i, 625)) inwhich the Symbolist poet saw not a Kantian

terms: ? sur mon ? ? ma

these 'Nuit effroyable pass?e lit orage partout chambre ?blouissante
par chaque ?clair? Et tout mon sort jouait dans ma t?te. Je suis entre moi et moi' (OC, i, 20).
7 on this thematic inMallarm?'s
For further reading work, see Jean-Pierre Richard, L'Univers
imaginaire deMallarm? (Paris: Seuil, 1961), ch. 4, 'L'exp?rience nocturne', pp. 155-242.
8
As Richard states: 'Dans lamythologie mallarm?enne des saisons et des heures, point donc de
motif plus obs?dant que celui de lamort solaire' (L'Univers imaginaire deMallarm?, p. 155). Fol
lowing the anguish of the nights inTouron in 1866-67, Mallarm?, the eminent poet of night, pre
ferred the nocturnal introversion that the celestial nothingness inspired, and wrote only, as Richard
says: 'des po?mes drap?s de noir; il semet en somme tout entier, corps, pens?e, r?verie, ? l'?preuve
nocturne' (p. 161). As well as poems such as Apparition' and 'H?rodiade' inPo?sies, the sensation
of pure non-existence is personified in the figure o?lgitur, who at midnight ('Le minuit' being one
of the two central episodes) leaves his room and goes down the 'corridor du temps' to his own self
abolition on the tomb of his ancestors: 'L'ombre disparue en son obscurit?, laNuit demeura' (Mal
larm?, uvres compl?tes, ed. by Bertrand Marchai, 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1998-2003), 1, 494).
9 era that Val?ry published
These reworked poems from the pre-Cahiers in 1920 retain their
strong Symbolist inspiration.
10
The Symbolist-influenced thematic of night is prevalent in numerous poems published in the
notes of uvres compl?tes, vol. 1,which the titles alone evince: 'El?vation de la lune' (1889; OC, 1,
1577) and 'Pour la nuit' (1890; OC, 1, 1579).
1*
Val?ry was the first person to see the Coup de d?s laid out on the writer's table in his apartment
on the rue de Rome in 1897. The poem was again the subject of discussion between the two writers
during Val?ry's last visit in July 1898; see the essay 'Derni?re visite ?Mallarm?' (OC, 1, 630-33).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 689

'LoiMorale' but 'l'Imperatifd'une poesie: une Poetique': 'nousmarchions,

fumeurs obscurs, au milieu du Serpent, du Cygne, de l'Aigle, de la Lyre - il
me semblait maintenant d'etre pris dans le texte meme de l'univers silencieux'
(OC, i, 626).
To comprehendfullythepsycho-poeticand phenomenologicaldimensionof
night, it is instructive to place it in the broader philosophical context towhich
it is inherently linked. In this respect, one cannot overlook the impact of the
youthful reading of the lyrical cosmogony in Edgar Allen Poe's Eureka that
Valery discovered around I891-92. Through his epistemological theory and
system of 'Consistency',12 the American poet pursued an ambitious study of
the origin and development of the physical and metaphysical universe. How
ever, Valery rejected not only Poe's grandiose cosmogonic vision, according to
which the universe formed by the explosion of the primordial particle (remark
ably prophetic of Big Bang theory), but also the notion of the terrifying cosmic
space-time towhich he refers in the essay 'Au sujet d'Eureka' ('l'idee d'un neant
est neant [. . ] c'est une feinte de l'esprit qui se donne une comedie de silence et
de tenebres parfaites' (OC, i, 863)). What is interesting is the distinction made
further on in this essay between the perception of the immediate visual world of
sensation ('premier Univers' (OC, I, 865)) and that of the invisible system of the
'univers total' that the senses reveal, which is defined as 'un immense systeme
cache [qui] supporte, penetre, alimente et resorbe chaque element actuel et sen
sible de ma duree, le presse d'etre et de se resoudre' (OC, i, p. 865). Valery posits
that the 'primary' form of the universe is that of the sensibility, perceived as a
variable and instantaneous presence-termed 'une sphere de simultaneite' (OC,
I, 865)-constantly linked to the movement of self as centre. In this respect,
Valery's interrogation of sensation and perception has certainly much more in
common with the phenomenology later conceived by Merleau-Ponty than it
does with the philosophy of Kant and Pascal, towhom he regularly refers.'3
After Valery abandoned the irrationality of Symbolist poetics in favour of
a heuristic method and practice of self-science, the mind-cosmos analogy
would later be transposed into different intellectual contexts. The poetico
philosophical motif of the starry night was to reverberate long after, emerging
not only in the poetic imagination that gave it voice inmany of the Poemes et
PPA,'4 the prelude of La Jeune Parque, the uncompleted finale of 'Fragments
12
Val?ry, who rejected the implicit metaphysical dimension, defined Poe's notion of 'Consis
tency' as a reciprocity ('la r?ciprocit? d'appropriation' {OC, i, 857)) or union of the mind and
the contents of the system it observes. In Poe's system, itwas both the medium of discovery and
discovery itself: 'L'univers est construit sur un plan dont la sym?trie profonde est, en quelque
sorte, pr?sente dans l'intime structure de notre esprit. L'instinct po?tique doit nous conduire
aveugl?ment ? la v?rit?' {OC, 1, 857).
13 and that described in
The intellectual parallel between Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology
is striking. Merleau-Ponty, in trying to go beyond the Cartesian opposition or
Val?ry's 'System'
'chiasma' of subject and object, and giving empirical sensation of the 'corps ph?nom?nal' primary
significance, is close to Val?ry's psycho-physical experience within the CEM (C, xxn, 796) or
'Corps-Esprit-Monde'. Val?ry is cited across the philosopher's writings: Ph?nom?nologie de la per
ception (Paris: Gallimard, 1945), p. 458; Le Visible et l'invisible (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), pp. 195,
201; and L' il et l'esprit (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), p. 16.
14
The Po?mes etPPA, one of thirty-one rubrics or thematic groupings of Val?ry's Cahiers, bring
together the prose poetry scattered across the notebooks. Val?ry regularly describes the intense
experience of genesis at dawn with the concomitant renaissance of self and language. This collec

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
690 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

du Narcisse', various poems of Charmes, and the third act of the melodrama
Semiramis, but also in the I923 essay on Pascal, entitled 'Variation sur une
pensee', and in the Cahiers. Part ofValery's lifelong polemic with Pascal essen
tially laywith the troubling metaphysical questioning that he perceived in the
Pensees. If, as Judith Robinson demonstrated in her celebrated essay 'Valery,
Pascal et la censure de lametaphysique', the sight of the starry heavens haunted
Valery's imagination and aroused a deep ontological anguish, even as early as
the i88os,'5 itwas the depreciation of the rational dimension that he disliked
in Pascal, his celebrated 'Adversaire' (C, XVI, 504), and whom he viewed as the
antipode of Descartes. It is important to recall that the Valeryan 'systeme de
moi - mon possible' (C, XVIII, 55) was precisely devised as a reaction against the
founding affective crisis of i89I-92 ('pour me defender d'une douleur insup
portable de la chair et de l'esprit, et d'une autre de l'esprit de l'esprit' (C, xvi,
322)), in favour of rational analysis.
While Valery rejects Pascal's affirmation ('Le silence eternel de ces espaces
infinisM'EFFRAYE' (OC, I, 458))"6 on the grounds of its dramatic and rhetorical
effect,which in his view sought only tomanipulate the sensibility, the sight of
the constellations in the nocturnal silence none the less awakens a sentiment
ofmysticism, tinged paradoxically with Pascalian resonance.'7 For Valery, con
templating the bewildering sidereal spectacle of 'ce nombre d'etoiles qui est
prodigieux pour nos yeux' (OC, I, 469) most commonly serves to reaffirm the
sense of strangeness and isolation of unique and conscious self in the universe,
as he states in 'Variations sur une pensee': 'nous ne percevons que des objets qui
n' ont rien 'a faire avec notre corps ... .]Nous nous trouvons accables, lapides,
englobes, negliges par ce nombreux etincellement' (OC, I, 467).I8
In poetic terms, this troubling image of solitary self faced with the Pascalian

tion has been translated into English by Robert Pickering in vol. n of Val?ry, Cahiers Notebooks,
I
ed. by Stimpson and others, pp. 343-404.
15 traces to
Judith Robinson this existential anguish back Val?ry's adolescent writings from the
late i88os that make explicit reference to Pascal and quotes a line revealing this early tension
between rational science and emotional response: 'La nuit, tout est noir. Les Etoiles seules luisent
au ciel. Tout est noir dans notre esprit. Les ?toiles de la science, seules, jettent quelque lumi?re'
('Val?ry, Pascal et la censure de la m?taphysique', in Colloque Paul Val?ry: amiti?s de jeunesse?
influences?lectures (Paris: Nizet, 1978), pp. 185-208 (p. 191)).
16
The 'jonglerie' (C, iv, 907) or linguistic conjuring that Val?ry observed in this line is repeat
edly denounced in the Cahiers (C, vin, 892; x, 342, 537). In one particular text Val?ry posits that
its power stems from a simple arrangement of language: 'Silence ?ternel des esp[aces] infinis' [. . .]
po?sie et accord (musical) entre 4 mots, bien amusant le m'effraye qui fait imaginer un pauvre
? contraste et compl?mentaire . . . ?crasant. Et la
petit homme de ce vide pens?e oppos?e ? ce
terrible Corps Noir qui absorbe tout et n'entend rien' (C, xvin, 248). Val?ry's issue with this
remark, which opens the essay 'Variation sur une pens?e' (OC, 1, 458-73), was unfounded, since
Pascalian specialists now accept that he did not intend to attribute the words to an apologist but
to an unbeliever or a libertine.
17
Robinson elucidates this ambivalence, citing examples of strong similarity inVal?ry's reaction
to the 'eternal silence' (see 'Val?ry, Pascal et la censure de la m?taphysique', pp. 195-99). The
reflection on Pascal's infinite cosmic space?time is reminiscent of Val?ry's remarks on the 'id?e du
n?ant' (OC, 1,863) in the scientifico-philosophical essay on Poe, 'Au sujet ?'Eur?ka'. See Paul Gif
ford, 'Self and Other: Val?ry's Lost Object of Desire', inReading Paul Val?ry :Universe inMind, ed.
by Paul Gifford and Brian Stimpson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 280-96.
18
In the notes to this essay, Val?ry specifies that Pascal differed from 'le sentiment g?n?ral des
hommes religieux en pr?sence du ciel nocturne, pur tout ensemenc? d'?toiles. Ils voient Dieu dans
ce vide sem? de feux' (OC, 1, 459). See Paul Gifford's chapter 'L'anti-Pascal' in his Paul Val?ry:

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 69I

neant de l'homme' (C, XXIX,895) ispowerfullyembodied invariouspersonae

of Valery's work. One thinks not only of Narcissus's cosmic helplessness and
solitude brought about by the onset of night, which eclipses his reflection in the
fountain, but also the Parque's experience of awakening to the horror of other
ness under the stars ('Tout-puissants etrangers, inevitables astres [... .] Je suis
seule avec vous' (OC, I, 96)).'9 However, it is in the theatrical representation
of 'Le Solitaire' (the title of one of the two plays that comprise 'Mon Faust'
Valery's unfinished lastwork from the 1940s) that this existential drama ismost
strikingly played out. In the nocturnal setting of the firstact, Faust, who has got
lost in the mountains, encounters his own double or demon, the Solitaire ('ce
terrible individu [. . .] au dela de la demence' (OC, II, 39I)), lying on a flat rock
under theMilky Way.20 The ultimate gesture of negation and insignificance is
expressed by the Solitaire, who, on awakening, lets out a cry of derision and
execration to the Pascalian 'celebre ciel etoile (OC, II, 386),2" which he views
as a bewildering chaos and nothingness:

Nuit admirable, abime d'heures, tu n'es rien. . .

J'insulte l'ombre et ses horloges ...
Bete comme la foule, o nuit! ...
Nuit, nombres, sac de grains, semences vaines!
Avec tes siecles et tes lampes ... tu n'es rien ... Rien, rien, rien. ...
La panique devant zero . . .Le rien faitpeur ... Ho ... Ho ... j
Haute vermine des etoiles ...
Astres entre lesquels la lumiere s'echange,
Elle n'est qu'entre vous! Vous n'etes, pauvres Cieux,
Qu'un peu d'etonnement des hommes, poudre aux yeux!
(OC, II, 382-83)

Of course, the preoccupations of Valery's published poetic work are in some

sense or other relative to the intellectual research in the laboratory of the
Cahiers, and it is on this corpus that our examination of the ontological and
phenomenologicaldimensionofnightwill now concentrate.
Here we encounter
inner analytical enquiry that constitutes a theoretical backdrop not only to the
psycho-poeticrepresentation
of thenocturnalexperience in theprose poetry
of the Cahiers, but a line of investigation that goes to the very heart of the Sys
tem's principal vocation: to understand and represent the functioning of the
human mind. However, while theremay occasionally be poetic and philosophi

le dialogue des choses divines (Paris: Corti, 1989), pp. 198-207, where the thematic of the 'silence
?ternel' inwhich Val?ry finds 'une savante po?sie du d?sespoir' (p. 200) is extensively treated.
19
In the great poem of consciousness, the drama of the Young Fate is played out under the night
sky,which constitutes a cosmic reflection of her own inner solitude and mystery ('Je scintille, li?e
? ce ciel inconnu' {OC, 1, 96)), as she moves from the disorder of awakening in the presence of the
stars ('diamants extr?mes'), through the 'nuit noire' {OC, 1, 105), the descent into sleep and the
temptation of death, to the arrival of first light and the renaissance of pure consciousness ('mes
retours sur moi' {OC, 1, 109)).
20
A note from the Cahiers pertaining to Act 1 of 'Le Solitaire' gives insight into the conception
of its decor: 'Le Ciel, avec son mat?riel d'astres, d'heures, de nues, de m?t?ores, de transforma
tions? les unes syst?matiques, in?vitables, les autres capricieuses, brusques, violentes, douces
etc. ? toutes ind?pendantes .
de l'homme et agissant sur lui sans r?ciproque [. .]Le duo ou drame
de l'homme et de la lumi?re et de 1'"espace"' (C, xxv, 870).
21
On hearing this cry, Faust asks the question: 'Le silence ?ternel voudrait-il en finir avec
lui-m?me?' {OC, 11, 382).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
692 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

cal overlap between the published and private work, it is important tomention
that, given the scientific and analytical specificity of the Cahiers, the abstract
pertainingtoperceptualphenomena isonly intermittently
reflection echoed in
the essays, poetry, or dialogues and, as such, remains an obscure constituent of
Valery's self-observingepistemologicalpractice.
That much of the private reflection in the Cahiers was ritually undertaken in
the early hours of morning, and usually before daybreak, makes this physical
frame of reference all the more pertinent. If one remark in the early Cahiers
embodies not only the poetic concentration of the nocturnal setting, but also
the spiritual and mystical asceticism of self, or the 'Mysterieuse moi', isolated
in the obscurity of night, it is undoubtedly the inscription 'LANUIT DE TRAVAIL
LA NUIT DE PUISSANCE I22 echoing the 'Nuit obscure' of the mystic Saint John
of theCross.23While outside the termsof analysis of this study,the 'Nocha
oscura', which demanded 'l'absence de toute lumiere naturelle, et le regne de
ces tenebres' (OC, I, 446), is none the less noteworthy in the context ofValery's
early-morning meditation that occasioned a regular mystical communion with
the 'ciel de nuit poetique' (C, xxv, 6i8).7 A cursory glance at the designa
tions of the quasi-spiritual matinal 'psaumes', 'aubades', and 'nocturnes' (C,
XII, 580) of Valery's prose poetry contained in the collection Poemes et PPA
already gives a clear indication of their style and tonality. It iswell known that
the emergence of self, simultaneous with the genesis of the real world at dawn,
constitutes Valery's great leitmotif, which he never tired of celebrating in the
Cahiers.25 There is no experience more intense or more charged with potential
and mysticism than the movement from the nothingness of unconsciousness
and the nocturnal purity ('Nudite de la nuit pas encore habillee' (C, Viii, I5'))
to lucid awareness, actual sensation, and the renewal of being: 'La nuit ab
straite et sainte- temps plus pres de vrai pur, de l'Etre. L'etre sort la nuit, des
profondeurs psychiques, cosmiques pour boire'(C, VII, 454) .
Since dialectics such as Night/Day and Absence/Presence are a common fea
ture of the prose writing in the Cahiers, it is not surprising that there is often an
indistinguishable line between the realms of obscurity and daybreak for both
the imagination and consciousness.27 Emblematic of the effort to represent vi

22
Paul Val?ry, Cahiers (integral edition), io vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1987-2006), 11, 142. Here
after C, int., followed by volume and page number of this integral edition.
23
Val?ry published the essay 'Cantiques spirituels', originally under the title 'Un po?te inconnu:
le P?re Cyprien', in 1941. However, he states in the essay that his contact with the Spanish mystic
goes back thirty years {OC, 1,445). See Gifford, Paul Val?ry, pp. 284-85.
24The with the thinking-writing in the space of
genesis of Val?ry's preoccupation subject
darkness dates back to the early Cahiers, where the phenomenon of localization of immediate
surrounding space is evaluated in relation to the situation of the head and the perceiving senses
(C, int., v, 344-45). See my article '"L'ici est lemoi de l'espace": Self, Genesis and the Space of
Writing inVal?ry's Cahiers', MLR, 97 (2002), 553-65.
25
The edition Paul Val?ry, Po?sie perdue, ed. by Michel Jarrety (Paris: Gallimard, 2000), brings
together all the prose poems of the Cahiers.
26 . . .": Val?ry's
See Stephen Romer's essay "Attente pure, ?ternel suspens Prose Poetry', in
Reading Paul Val?ry, ed. by Gifford and Stimpson, pp. 121-37.
27
Val?ry's prose poetry offers numerous examples ofwaking at two or three o'clock in the morn
'Trois heures quarante . Le . Le d?color?
ing when dawn is already breaking: [. .] jour d?j? [. .]
de cette heure' (C, vu, 352), or '? matin, matin pur aux couleurs primitives [. . .] au ciel encore
grave de la nuit' (C, vin, 843).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 693

sually the passage from darkness to light in relation to self is the schematic
diagram in the margin of the prose text 'Matin' (C, VIII, 843) that consists
of two boxes joined by an arrow, one called 'Nox' (containing the words 'ce
noir constelle') and theother 'Aurora',accompanyingthe inscription'Le corps
interprete ces 2 tables'. Numerous abstract poems chart the slow and often
indistinctprogressionfromblackness topenumbra.The formationof lightat
dawn is occasionally likened to pictorial creation, or in other words the genetic
process by which the artist builds up visual signification through the formal
system of signs on the uniform backdrop of the nocturnal canvas:
les premiers bruits s'etablissent sur silence, que les choses et formes colorees se posent
sur tenebres, que ce vermeil si pur, ces choses de perles, de lait bleuatre, ces pans
d'hyacinthe, de jaune d'ceuf transparent sont sur de la nuit lavees; que ces langueurs,
regards, lenteurs et pensee ahuries, singulieres, ces premieres idees [. . .] sont peintes
sur le sommeil/neant chaud et qui pourrait reprendre. (C, VI, 232)28

It is precisely the modulation of darkness and daylight in parallel with the

reciprocalmovement of consciousness thatfascinatesValery at thishour: 'Ce
n'est pas l'aube - Mais le declin de la lune [. . .] une lueur mourante a qui
le jour naissant se substitue peu a peu. J'aime ce moment si pur, final, initial'
(C, VII, 732). Being and consciousness hinge on this transitory intersection that
occurs between 'le Rien et le Tout' (C, xxiii, 697), themoment when change
is imminent but still virtual: 'Moment oiu rien ne se distingue specialement
dans le Tout' (C, XXI, 226). It is important tomention that the experience of
awakening ismore accurately associated with darkness forValery, as numerous
prose texts, such as 'Aumilieu de la nuit du matin' (C, XXVII, 482), testify.
If morning, which Valery termed his 'sejour' (C, XII, 352), was typically
characterized by surprise, expectation, and regeneration, darkness procures a
different type of sentiment and perception. In the nocturnal realm, conscious
ness is less susceptibleto theemotionalvicissitudesand turbulenceassociated
with the transformation of dawn.29 It is the immobility and visual integrality
of night that intensify the sentiment of isolation and enclosure while the world
and thoughtappear temporarilysuspended:
La nuit est encore toutentiere/intacte/.La lampe &claire le noir pur surmes vitres. [...]
Je vois alors Toutes choses. [. .
Je suis seul et tete a tete avec tout ce qui n'est pas en pleine action. (C, xxII, 3 I)

The key to this experience lies in the absence of virtuality in the nocturnal
spectacle a principal tenet in perception forValery-thereby rendering it de
void of any sense of mystery or potential. Darkness is thus primarily an en
counter with a stationary state of consciousness, before movement commences
28
The analogy here with painting is not an isolated one. Other prose texts present a similar
pictorial genesis of the world: 'Petit matin, petit jour [. . .]Tout se peint sur le n?ant frais, sur
.
la sensibilit? imm?diate naissante [. .] sur les t?n?bres' (C, vu, 554). See also the text 'Matin':
'Cette paix du bleu frais peinte sur or. Or et nuit' (C, vin, 151).
29
One biographical note from the Cahiers gives valuable insight into the classification or sub
division of the day: 'C'est une ?trange chose que je ressente l'aube comme renoncement, lemidi
comme jugement, le soir comme sombre v?rit?, la nuit comme proph?tie' (C, vin, 496). Val?ry's
unfinished prose text Alphabet, in which he omitted the letters K and W, constitutes a poetic
representation of the day, divided into twenty-four hymns or psalms: see Paul Val?ry, Alphabet,
ed. by Michel Jarrety (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1999).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
694 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

and dynamicsensibilityis fullyactivated.3?

This tranquilstasisof night is thus
conducive to an acute existential consciousness very much at variance with the
obscurity of the physical context inwhich it originates. In particular, the prose
writingsof theCahiers, characterizedby an intensepoetico-ontologicalquality,
reiteratethesentimentof totaluniversal solitudeand seclusionassociatedwith
darkness:
Matin noir- Lampe - Eveil - Se sent comme le seul existant ou pensant au centre
d'un monde oui les hommes endormis jouent le role de neant. [. . .] Ce vide et silence
ressentis comme propriet positive: richesse, duree d'attente- noire et bonne terre [. . .]
- Degre du sentiment d'etre le seulmonologue qui s'oppose au mutisme universel. (C,
xv, 546)

Undoubtedly, this thematicof selfconfrontedwith the cosmic, ontological

night finds its ultimate expression in the image of 'extreme diamond'. While
the metaphorical dimension of the star has long been recognized as a central
symbol inValery's poetry, little has hitherto been said of its important status in
the context of the phenomenology of night, particularly with reference to the
Cahiers. There is no greater symbol of solitary self than the lone star radiating
in the black sky, 'l'un splendide dans le pur' (C, XVIII, 53 I), the two mirroring
each other in a reciprocal symmetry.3' While the mathematical figure of the
point is commonly used to represent self, not just as an isolated point but as
one in which lines converge, the centre of gravity or 'barycentre' (C, int., IV,
282) is a more precise scientific analogy; Phedre gives a poetic transcription of
this physical concept in the dialogue Eupalinos: 'La sphere tout entiere vous a
toujours pour centre; o chose reciproque de l'attention de tout le ciel etoile!'
(OC, II, 99). The geometrical point, the smallest conceivable portion of space,
becomes thus the ultimate metaphor for the perceiving subject conscious of his
presence in the system of the cosmos yet remaining infinitely isolated, as this
abstract poem from the Cahiers describes:

Je suis le lieu geometrique, le point

Egalement ignore de tous ces astres
Egalement ignorant.Moi et Eux.
Immense etonnement d'etoiles separees!
(C, VI, 109).32

In Valery's observations of the constellations, we do not therefore witness an

3? For further
reading see my article 'Dynamog?nie du moi dans les Po?mes et PPA de Val?ry',
Australian Journal ofFrench Studies, 39 (2002), 354-66.
31
See Nicole Celeyrette-Pietri's analysis of the theme of the mirror, and particularly the reflec
tion of the night sky in the fountain, in relation toVal?ry's Fragments du Narcisse in Val?ry et lemoi
(Paris: Klincksieck, 1979), pp. 166?67. In tne manuscripts, Val?ry had envisaged a finale inwhich
the image of Narcissus gives way to 'le ciel cribl? d'astres s'enfon?ant dans lemiroir' {OC, 1, 1673).
32
This prose fragment, contemporaneous with Val?ry's work around 1916 on La Jeune Parque,
is evocative of the beginning of the famous poem:

Je scintille, li?e ? ce ciel inconnu . . .

[...]
Tout-puissants ?trangers, in?vitables astres
Qui daignez faire luire au lointain temporel
Je ne sais quoi de pur et de surnaturel;
Vous qui dans lesmortels plongez jusques aux larmes
Ces souverains ?clats, ces invincibles armes

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 695

attempt to interpret the mystery of the cosmos or to confer meaning on it;

his experiencetypicallyengenderstherealizationthattheunitingfactorof the
celestialdisplay is self,the 'Egomedius' (C, XXIX,548):
3h.Nuit etoilee. Aussitot toutes les pensees vaines et absurdes s'ebauchent a l'appel de
l'auguste perception. Jem'essaye a ne pas donner un sens a cette exposition de feux
froids. ... .] Ici, deux corps lumineux voisins l'un de l'autre ne sont voisins que grace
a moi ... .] Je suis la circonstance grace a laquelle il y a quelque relation entre eux. (C,
XXII, 6i i)

It is this sentiment of existential strangeness of Self in opposition to its recip

rocal, the 'Tout' (C, vii, 843), thatmost frequently emerges from the nocturnal
experience. As dawn remains virtually poised and temporarily held back by the
surroundingobscurity,thecalm of thephysicalcontext,so oftenencountered
in the 'aubades' of the Cahiers, becomes the space of a fundamental ontological
despair:
A 4 heures je regardais le palmier orne d'une etoile.
Ce calme infinimentdoux, source immobile de la journee.
Etait infinimentvoisin de la source des larmes [. . .]
Le desespoir est un etat normal, raisonnable: le seul mieme qui le soit.
I1 est la suppression de ce qui n'est pas encore.
(C, VIII, 588)

While it is generally recognized that virtuality and expectation are more char
acteristic of dawn forValery, they can be quickly negated by indetermination
and despair. The Cahiers offermany instances of consciousness being abruptly
and momentarily seized by moments of profound existential anguish in the
darkness: 'Reveil [. .] 6h.Nuit noire encore. Puis un terriblemoment-
Desespoir - i minute. L'aurore nait' (C, XVI, 2I3).33 From this perspective,
it is not surprising that Valery's response is occasionally one of rejection of
the nocturnal vista, which the act of closing the window typifies. This sym
bolic gesture connotes ametaphysical 'censure' of the Pascalian cosmic 'silence
eternel' along with any ontological resonance that itmight entail:
-
J'ouvre la fenetre sur la nuit riche en etoiles et en tenebres. Et- en un instant tout
ce que l'on peut penser au choc de ce spectacle fameux s'indique dans mon esprit ...
excite le sentiment du petit nombre des combinaisons possibles en faitd'idees suggerees
par ce ciel [. . .] je ferme le rideau. (C, XIX, 279)34

Jesuis seule avec vous, tremblante.

(OC, i, 96)

33
This existential despair is occasionally intensified by the shrill crowing of the cock forwhich
Val?ry professes a visceral dislike: '4hmatin. Je hais le chant du coq qui dans la nuit noire ext?rieure,
tandis que je serre mon ?tre sous ma lampe [. . .] interpelle le jour absent et certain. Je hais ce
chant qui d?clare toute la sottise de la vie telle quelle' (C, xxn, 611).
34
This line is reminiscent of Mallarm?'s 'H?rodiade':
Mais avant, si tu veux, clos les volets: l'azur
S?raphique sourit dans les vitres profondes,
Et je d?teste, moi, le bel azur!
(Mallarm?, uvres compl?tes, i, 22)

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
696 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

However, thispoetico-existentialperspectivehas largelyeclipsed Valery's

extensivephenomenological investigations-presentin theCahiers since their
inception in I894-and by which he attempted to apprehend subject-conscious
ness in the nocturnal realm through the interactions within his famous triad of
Body-Mind-World or 'CEM'.3s As onemight expect,Valery drew on a wide
array of scientific analogies in support of this representation of sensorial expe
rience,inparticularoptics,electromagnetism,and radiation.If, in thedomain
ofvisual research,theCahiers understandablygiveprecedence to thephysicsof
light (defined as 'un fait generateur de la diversite "vue"' (C, xxIx, 253)) and the
physiologyof theeye (C, XXVII,268 and 274), thephenomenologicalexperience
of darkness is in its own right very substantial. It is interesting to remark that
in a text called 'Le noir' Valery makes a clear distinction in perceptual terms
betweenblacknessand darkness: 'On confondsouvent le noiravec l'obscurite,
l'absence de vue. Mais l'obscurite n'est noir que si des choses lumineuses s'y
opposent' (C, XVII, 328). In effect, darkness is defined as the absence of visual
perception whereas blackness, not being absolute, ismore precisely a relative
visual sensation thathas perceptible significanceonly in relationto contrast
ing light: 'Noir pur =impression du manque local de lumiere equivalente a
une couleur. Couleur (relative) du manque local de lumiere. Relative -car
l'absence totale de lumiere ne peut etre dite noir' (C, XIX, 3 I4).36
While normal vision, as it is defined in the Cahiers, results from the interac
tion of three variables or a 'tripartition' (C, xxIx, 526) comprising the faculty of
perception, light,and theexternal realm, thenocturnalexperienceobviously
modifies this perceptual equation. From the very early Cahiers, darkness is inex
tricablylinkedto theexplorationof phenomenologicalconsciousness through
acute visual concentration and attention: 'Nous pouvons associer l'obscurite'
[. . .] ou les yeux clos [... .] a l'attention d'y voir, oculi intensi' (C, int., III, I09).
While theseempiricalexperimentsconstituteindependentcomponentsof the
universal 'pan-logique' (C, x, 756) of Valery's greater 'System', they also in
form the nocturnal poetic in various published prose writings (for example, the
'Colloque dans un etre' inMelange and the posthumously published Alphabet).
It is clear thatValery's intention was to arrive at a functional psycho-physiology
of 'nocturnal'perception,consistentwith theoverarchingepistemologicalim
perative of his 'methode' (C, xx, I52), which was to pursue 'l'observation du
de l'esprit'(C, xxv, 845).
fonctionnement
A cornerstone of this visual research was Valery's reflection on the formation
and perception of images in darkness or what he calls 'cette etude de projec
tion- psycho-optique, dans les tenebres' (C, VI, 423-24).37 This was a deriva
35 'Les 3 points cardinaux de connais
Val?ry calls the three correlatives 'Corps-Esprit-Monde'
sance' (C, xxii, 147).
36Henri definition of darkness in his Essai sur les donn?es imm?diates de la conscience
Bergson's
.
(Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1927) is noteworthy: 'Nous avons ?t? habitu?s [. .] ? con
sid?rer le noir comme une absence ou tout au moins comme un minimum de sensation lumineuse
. .] le noir a autant de r?alit? pour notre conscience que le blanc [...]. Le noir serait ? l'intensit?
[.
ce que le blanc est ? la saturation' (pp. 40-41). In Val?ry's poetic imagination, the 'noir pur' is
the colour of nothingness and solitude, as the text 'Couleurs' horn M?lange states: 'Le "noir pur",
couleur puissante de la solitude totale; pl?nitude du rien, perfection du n?ant' (OC, 1, 378).
37
The physics of nocturnal vision profoundly interested Val?ry; see, for example, the text on the
observation of 'figures [. . .] dans l'obscur', with a schema in the form of a vertical and horizontal

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 697

tive of his formal psychology (known as 'G[eometrie] I[maginative]' (C, int., iii,
3 ) or Geometry of Images), which he conceived at the end of the I8gos with the
aim of determining the laws that govern the succession of images in conscious
mental imagesor constructs
ness.According to thefirstprincipleof thistheory,
are created by visual, tactile, ormotor sensation in real (as opposed to geometri
cal) space or 'l'espace reel (de nos sens)' (C, int., III, 153). Later in the Cahiers,
Valery invokes various psycho-physical experiments in an effort to grasp the re
lationshipbetweenexternalphysicalstimuliand theeffectstheyproduce in the
mind. Far from being marginal, these constitute an integral part of the 'System',
which favoureddirectphenomenologicaldescriptionover abstractphilosophi
cal reasoning. One common test is the act of opening and closing the eye in nor
mal daylight,38 which not only reaffirms that the physical universe is a function
of vision but illustrates that the oculomotor act is distinct fromwhat itproduces:

J'ouvre les yeux et vois. C'est une unite de diversite ... .] Je ferme les yeux. Je recom
mence. Je retrouve (en general) lameme diversite [. . .]Ainsi l'acte qui faitvoir et non
voir (paupieres) n'a pas de rapport avec ce qu'il produit. Cette production est relais,
intervention. (C, xxv, 402-03)

The objective of removingvisual perception in theseexperimentswas cer

tainly to favour direct and immediate responses of the body to phenomeno
logical sensation and space. The evidence of this is to be found in the key
text entitled 'Connaissance du Corps' (C, xvi, 896), where Valery empirically
explorescorporealconsciousnesswithout vision:
Le 'Corps' perSu directement- sans visualite- non plus comme un objet, une forme.
Ainsi, fermant les yeux, agiter doucement lesmains [... .]Essayer de ne pas introduire
cet Autre - qui est la figure exterieure comme l'ceuvre des yeux et du souvenir. Alors
commence le sans-lignes, l'espace informe. [. . .] Le 'corps' . . . le 'monde' sont des
convergences uniformes,par la distinguees des 'connaissances' qui pourraient etre autres,
et ne sont que memoire, tandis que celles-ci sont non seulement memoire mais toujours
verifiablesdirectement.

If the investigations pertaining to visible space ('un champ lumineux' (C,

xxviii, 469)) were instructive in their own right, it is not surprising that the
of thenocturnalenvironment
isotropicand unoccupied spatiality39 would be
naturally conducive to this research and thereby offermore conclusive insight.
The phenomenological exercises undertaken in the experimental laboratory of
the Cahiers are not only limited to stationary visual exercises but range from
the observation ofmovement and direction across a dark room 'apres avoir jete
un coup de lumiere et vu le chemin' (C, xxi, 83), to that of reducing the speed of
one's steps to compensate for the absence of vision: 'dans le noir, on diminue les

axis seeking to illustrate the relationship between forms and the movements of the eye and head:
'Si ce ph?nom?ne ?tait ?clairci? quelle d?couverte!' (C, xx, 779).
38This notion is not only from a psycho-optic but from a philosophical
broached perspective
point of view regarding the existence of objects when not in view: see C, xxvn, 892.
39
It is interesting to quote Merleau-Ponty's remarks on nocturnal phenomenology: 'Quand, par
exemple, lemonde des objets clairs et articul?s se trouve aboli, notre ?tre perceptif amput? de son
monde dessine une spatialit? sans choses. C'est ce qui arrive dans la nuit. Elle n'est pas un objet
devant moi, elle m'enveloppe . La nuit est sans profils, elle me touche elle-m?me et son unit?
[. .]
est l'unit? mystique du mana' {Ph?nom?nologie de la perception (Paris: Gallimard, 1945), p. 328).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
698 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

chancesd'un heurtblessant,en diminuant lavitessedemarche' (C, xxv, 765).4?

Despite the lackofvisibility,thesubject requiresminimal physicalreferenceor
contact to be able tomove in a dark familiar space: 'Qui marche dans l'obscur
d'un lieu qu'il connait bien, il lui suffit de palper un coin de table pour savoir
oiu il est dans la chambre, et ce fragment tactile lui donne connaissance de toute
une region bien plus etendue, modifie son etat potentiel' (C, xii, I31). What
thisexperimentexplores is the sensoryadjustmentwhereby vision becomes
superseded by tactile stimuli. As a result, the subject is compelled to alternate
between regular and sporadic movements in anticipation of objects, as Valery
states in the text 'Reel relatif': 'Suppose un homo dans l'obscurite. Alors les
palpes et les forces sont au ie plan. L'espace se divise [. . .] en mouvements
arretes par corps solides, et en mouvements libres, vers le vide' (C, XXI, 32).
It is hardly surprising that the experience of the eye in darkness, or equally
that of the hand 'tendue ouverte dans le vide, oCuelle ne trouve rien a toucher
et rien qui la touche' (C, XXIV, 68), is strongly associated with silence, which is
itself defined not as absence but as 'une sensation quand certaine attention audi
tivele faitpercevoirpar contrasteavec leson' (C, xv, I76).4' In fact,towardsthe
end of the Cahiers, Valery classified 'l'oiil dans les tenebres', 'l'oreille tendue au
silence et lamain dans le vide' separately from other sensations, assigning them
the designation of 'Sensations positives nulles ou vides' (C, xxiv, 690). The key
element in each is the creation of a state of tension and expectation, what he
calls 'une sorte d'impression interrogatrice et d'attente'. Silence, as a relative
value, does not necessarily entail non-existence of energy (C, XXVII, 896), but
like darkness is experienced as an actual sensation: 'Le silence est absence de
bruit [. . .] est sensible par contraste. [. . .]De meme, l'obscurite prend valeur
positive [. . .] I1 y a donc sensation' (C, XVIII, 359). These two phenomena are
not only closely related by the obvious characteristic of absence or 'sens vide'
(C, VI, 2I), but more importantly by the reflexive consciousness they engender:
'Le silence de l'ouie n'est pas necessairement un zero. Ni meme l'obscurite
absolue qui tend toujours a se peupler. [. . .] I1 y a silence quand je finis par
m'entendre. Obscurite quand je tends a me voir.'
If there is one predominant sentiment that this 'Psychologie de la nuit' (C,
int., II, 2I6) generates forValery, it is unquestionably the acute psycho-physical
consciousness of self. The nocturnal realm is perceived as an altered continuum
inwhich space-time is suspended and sensation heightened: 'Dans le corps noir,
plus de temps. Plus de distance, dans la nuit' (C, XXII, 22i). The reference here
to the 'black body' is not fortuitous.42 If the 'corps noir' is invoked as a generic
4? a similar experiment of the early Cahiers, which consists of the subject closing his
Regarding
eyes and walking towards an object, Val?ry states that a lack of visuality does not interfere with
or direction: ?
co-ordination 'Je puis regarder un objet puis clore les yeux et marcher presque
s?rement ? l'objet [. . .] en fermant les yeux je n'ai pas d?truit la coordination musculaire d?finie
d'abord par les muscles de l' il et la r?tine' (C, int., vu, 112).
41 a subtle distinction between hearing or audition and audibility: ?
Val?ry makes 'Le silence
terme qui repr?sente la continuit? de la fonction auditive. L'audition=0, mais l'audibilit? existe et
est per?ue ? sous forme d'attente. Perception du pur pouvoir d'entendre, manqu? de r?ponse' (C,
int., vin, 189).
42 A an ideal body which absorbs all the radiation that strikes it,what
black body is considered
ever the frequency. The practical experiment used in physics to demonstrate this is a radiating
chamber with a small opening, acting like a black body, through which light can enter and radi

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 699

term to denote the substance of the nocturnal entity,Valery's use of the term is
inkeepingwith theoriginalconceptof black-bodyradiationinphysics,which
was developed by Boltzmann43 and Max Planck44 at the end of the nineteenth
century.
As one of themany analogiesborrowed fromcontemporaryscientific
research (the term 'corps noir' (C, int., x, I67) appears in bold characters for
the first time in the Cahiers in I9 II, when electromagnetic radiation was a
fundamentalpreoccupation in physics), it showsValery correlatingradiating
consciousnessof self indarknesswith theemissionof electromagneticenergy
from a black body to the proximate space around it, as the key text 'Je rayonne'
elucidates:
Mon corps rayonne dans le noir, vers une conscience la sienne,- ses sensations, idees
[... .] La notion du rayonnement physique, de la deperdition dans, vers le vide-de
se mieux percevoir soi en presence du Corps Noir, la nuit, le silence etc., comme si la
conscience [. . .] taitune dissipation, une mise en liberte de quelque energie et d'autant
plus intense que plus grande la difference entre l'eveil cache et le noir environ. [. . .]En
presence du noir, c'est le possible que je rayonne. (C, int.,x, i68)

The phenomenon of radiation is not confined to physical consciousness, but

equally extends to thought as an incandescent phenomenon emitted in the
darkness. Reminiscent of the lone star, self is the centre-point in the uniform
substance of night from which thought emanates and evolves: 'la nuit complete
est eclairee par ces idees- Et elles illuminent de leur rayonnement les ob
jets possibles, les idees profondement encore engagees. Je ferme les yeux pour
laisser rayonner des restes' (C, vii, I63). In Valery's lexicon, the 'corps noir'
was more broadly intended to designate the various perceptual phenomena
psychological,corporeal,and sensorial-that his nocturnalphenomenologyen
compasses. This perspective is in effect consistent with the original use and
intention of the term in the Cahiers: 'Le corps noir J.. .]Regarder de tous les
yeux dans le noir. Tendre au silence l'oreille. Palper le vide' (C, int., x, I67).45
What is perhaps most significant in this poetico-phenomenological context is
the passage by subtle osmosis of the image of radiating self and the 'corps noir'
fromthe scientificepistemologyof theCahiers toValery's legendarypoetic
figurations. Numerous examples are to be found in the genetic fragments of
themanuscripts of the published verse, as for instance in the poem 'Aurore' of
Charmes:

ation leave. Once a ray has passed inside the chamber, it is reflected against the sides until it is
progressively absorbed.
43
In Boltzmann's work on black-body radiation, the emission of energy and entropy (disorder
of a closed system), Val?ry finds echoes of Poe's Eureka and an essential notion in his description
of the mental functioning of self: 'Quand Edgar Poe mesure la dur?e de son Cosmos par le temps
n?cessaire pour que toutes les combinaisons possibles des ?l?ments aient ?t? effectu?es, on pense
aux id?es de Boltzmann, et ? ses calculs de probabilit? appliqu?s ? la th?orie cin?tique des gaz'
{OC, i, 861).
44
Planck (i 858-1947), who first formulated the law of black-body radiation which laid the foun
dations of quantum theory in 1900, demonstrated that the energy of electromagnetic radiation is
confined to indivisible 'packets', later called quanta, work forwhich he won the Nobel Prize in 1918.
While Val?ry refers to him later in the Cahiers (C, ix, 856; xv, 212), his theory features much earlier.
45
This association with vision is possibly best attested by the detailed sketch of an eye accom
panied by the phrase 'Corps noir' in the text (C, xiv, 171).

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
700 Valery: The Poetics and Phenomenology ofNight

Au centre de mon ame est le corps noir

je ferme les yeux
je deviens corps noir

and
Les yeux clos, mon temple noir
Rayonne.46

Although these lines were not retained in the final version of the poem, they
none the less reveal the conceptual framework and substratum that shaped it.
This indirectpoetic assimilation ismore subtlyembedded in the sparklingor
'scintillating'consciousnessof theParque under the starryheavens ('Je scin
tille, liee 'aciel inconnu' (OC, I, 96)),47 which the phenomenological 'Je rayonne'
(C, int., x, I68) of the Cahiers of i9 i i foreshadows by a couple of years. Within
theCahiers, themodel of black-body radiationis also significantly
summoned
to describe Valery's hero of the intellect, M. Teste: 'Teste. 0 Corps Noir! On
pourrait decrire ce personnage-type par analogie avec le corps noir. Nettement
par proprietes' (C, XIII, 524). We crucially encounter Teste (from the Latin
testis), the paradigm of any illumination that the intellect emits, radiating men
tal and physical presence in the 'abandon nocturne' (OC, II, 23) of his cell-like
room in La Soiree avec Monsieur Teste.
It is apt that the 'nuit de M. Teste'48 draws to a close on the dual theme of
being and consciousness: 'Je suis etant, et me voyant; me voyant me voir' (OC,
II, 25). The nocturnal insularity of Teste, comfortable in the nocturnal soli
tude as he descends into sleep, is analogous to the experience of self-awakening
'inmedia nocte, dans la nudite de son existence' (C, XIV, 482) and embarking
on a spiritual 'navigation' through a virtual, obscure, and unfamiliar space:
'Nuit coupee [. . .]Merveilles de possession et de puissance spirituelle. Com
parable 'a des nuits en chemin de fer-, comparable au trajet lui-meme avec
ses decouvertes et ses tunnels' (C, VII, 409). As Valery stated in the essay
'Cantiques spirituels', the preferred theme of Saint John of the Cross was a
state called the 'Nuit obscure' that induced 'une iame toute nue' (OC, I, 469).
The phenomenological experience of the nocturnal realm similarly engenders
subject,while not
a poetico-ontologicalstrangenessfor the thinking-writing
diminishing consciousness or the lucidity of the internal voice: 'Un homme
se reveille. Constate qu'il est nuit close. Cette coincidence Eveil+nuit. Pensee
nette et point de vision' (C, xv, 424).

WATERFORD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PAUL RYAN

46 These two references are contained in the unpublished notebook of Charmes at
manuscript
the Biblioth?que nationale de France (Chmsl, pp. 300, 301).
47 self appears in the very first drafts of La Jeune Parque from
The thematic of scintillating
around 1912-13 ('Je scintille ? travers les frissons de ma chair') contained in the unpublished
manuscript notebook JPmsI, fol. 5V.
48 Andr? Gide and Paul Val?ry, Correspondance 18QO-IQ42 (Paris: Gallimard, 1955), p. 427.

This content downloaded from 134.121.47.100 on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:26:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions