The presence of laughter and smile in the poetic works of Charles Baudelaire

Talking about laughter in texts usually puts the emphasis on its cause, comedy. Few literary critics have provided real attention to laughter itself as an occurrence in the text. And none has pushed conclusions far enough to offer a systematic study of laughter as a literary object. My goal is to correct this lack by using Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du mal", "Le Spleen de Paris", and "Amœnitates Belgicæ". In his treaty "De l'essence du rire", which exposes his theory of the phenomenon of laughter, as well as a "modern" aesthetics of comedy, Baudelaire is adamant about the necessity of excluding laughter from pure poetry. Since his poetic pieces are sprinkled with occurrences of laughter, such a condemnation is worth pondering. I argue that, far from being an inner negligence, laughter appearing in these texts should be treated as a discursive event, which models the indecisions and dilemmas lying at the core of poetic creation for Baudelaire. As a textual object, laughter ("rire") needs first to be analyzed in all its linguistic and semantic varieties, with the inclusion of the etymologically connected term smile ("sourire"). Such a survey of occurrences is then guided by a leading concept of "presence", which, according to its religious and phenomenological meanings, comprises a manifestation as well as an absence. When appearing in poetic texts, laughter and smile metaphorically connote much more than a punctual burst or aura of joy. Both "satanic" according to Baudelaire, they illustrate an in-between nature of grandeur and misery. In such a discordant frame of reference, the couple appearance/absence reveals itself. Laughter and smile operate as bridges or obstacles to the connection with something previously hidden. This hidden object oozing from these two textual objects is radically "other", to borrow a term from Lévinas. Besides the characterization of that other and modes of opening and closure of the conscience to this other, I show how laughter and smile metaphorically convey the infinite game of the imagination at stake in poetic creation for Baudelaire, and answer to an aspiration for "pure art".