This master’s thesis analyses the poetry of the versatile Slovenian-French artist Vladimir Kaučič – Jean Vodaine (1921–2006). Because his oeuvre is so extensive and varied, I have divided it into early, mature and late periods.
Belonging to Vodaine’s early period are six poetry collections (Rose et Noir, Le Toron Noir, A travers la Lucarne, L'Arbre Retrouvé, Le Jour se Fera, Pas de Pitié pour les Feuilles Mortes) as well as poems he published in literary magazines from 1945 to 1955. This period is delineated by the publication of his first collection of poetry and when the literary magazine Dire began to be published. Most of the poems stemming from this part of his oeuvre are schematic, and at times they could be criticized for lacking originality and for being repetitive. Only occasionally did Vodaine manage to go beyond these limits and produce individual poems that were above average. Things changed with his collection Pas de pitié pour les feuilles mortes. The collection marks a milestone in Vodaine’s artistic journey and is of a higher quality and more original than his previous works. By taking recourse to Verlaine and by singing the anguishes of modern and working-class life, Vodaine was able to unite tradition with modern poetry. In terms of quality, his work up to 1955 is marked by linguistic virtuosity and the deft integration of labour themes into a poetry that is otherwise entirely lyrical with touches of romanticism. Common themes during this period are nature, God, the changing of the seasons, and Lorraine.
From Jean Vodaine’s mature poetic oeuvre, I analysed his five poetry collections and his poems published in literary magazines between 1955 and 1984. This is the period in which he published the magazine Dire. During this time, his poetic expression matured, which is why the poems are more original and of a higher quality than those from his early period. In addition to original poetry, Vodaine republished a good number of older poems, usually in a slightly modified or supplemented form, in poetry collections. The collection Le Bon Dieu à crédit (1955) is imbued by a type of poems in which the desperate lyrical subject complains about the world, about life, while pondering death and lost childhood. Unlike in his earlier period, in these poems God is no longer hope and love. Rather, He is a distant entity that the lyrical subject occasionally addresses ironically. A similar type of poem also appears in other collections, albeit increasingly rarely. The type is also dominant in the collection Les Pauvres Heures (1957). In Vodaine’s mature period, one of the most important themes is the description of the mental hardships of factory workers, and in the aforementioned collection this theme is allied to criticism of the modern world and progress. Motifs from Vodaine’s native Lorraine remain, but for the first time in his poetry he brings in motifs from his native country, Slovenia. His double-sided relationship to the land of Lorraine is the central theme of the collection Les Chants de Yutz (1961). It is a grey land whose landscape consists of factories, mines and blast furnaces, where death is always lurking. On the other hand, however, Lorraine is a place of childhood and youth, of beautiful memories, in which the lyrical subject is often lost. In Petits Agglos de Mots Périmés (1972), Vodaine, who was always drawing attention to the plight of the workers, becomes more engaged, moving from dreamy lyric poems to stronger words, with some erotic motifs also appearing. Some poems describe the destruction, criticize war and lay bare its consequences. With this collection, the poet finally broke with the emotional lyrics of the previous collections, and his poems take on a more modern form and employ new motifs. The most extensive collection of this period is Sérénade pour un chien endormi (1979). Thematically, it is very diverse, and once again there are some poems with a resigned lyrical subject, some about Lorraine, and some about labour. One original group consists of poems with railway motifs, especially accidents at railway construction sites. Some poems show inklings of an important theme from Vodaine’s late period: life in the city. There is a wide range of urban motifs, from the beauty of old streets to drug addicts and police violence. Many of the poems in this collection have a socially critical tone, and when choosing motifs Vodaine often referred to his own life and his family’s story of emigration. During this period, some of his poems found their way into literary magazines, especially in those he himself published (Poésie avec nous, Courrier de poésie, La Tour aux Puces).
Vodaine’s late period is delineated by the year 1984, when he stopped publishing Dire, and 2006, when he died. I have analysed two extensive poetry collections from this period. The first is Maixines, a collection that pays tribute to the city of Metz, which is present in a good many of the poems. The poet repeatedly relied on both the history and the contemporary life of the city and on the personalities associated with it. In his late period, Vodaine’s poetry becomes less hermetic than in his mature period. His final poetry collection, Quatre photos du profil droit (1996), contains various poems with motifs found in all previous poetry collections, and it can therefore be characterized as a conceptual summation of Vodaine’s decades of poetry.
Jean Vodaine also translated poetry; he and Veno Pilon published a collection of translations of Slovenian poetry, Œillets rouges pour Paris (1970).
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