Yves Bonnefoy's wide-ranging oeuvre, which includes poetry, prose, biography, autobiography, critical essays, art history studies and hallmark translations of Shakespeare, constitutes a profound and uniquely influential contribution to French literature. Perhaps best known as a poet of place and presence, Bonnefoy counterbalances the post-1950 questioning of language's ability to express the self with his own conviction, based on analyses of writers and artists across several centuries, that the creative act forges a collective destiny. His vision is an ontological project, wherein the potential for unity between beings and things is fleetingly yet intensely felt, even if this unity cannot quite be proved through reasoned argument. He believes in each individual's capacity to reconnect…
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Citation: Prevots, Aaron. "Yves Bonnefoy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5976, accessed 21 November 2024.]
