In just another ten days Baudelaire 200 Years! Literary Festival supported by the Alliance Francaise in Dublin will take place. It only seems like a few weeks when I first made contact with Christine Weld, the Assistant Director and Cultural Manager at the Alliance, in order to discuss the possibility of the festival in the first place.
Christine was incredibly supportive from my very first point of contact. As soon as she understood how committed I was, she gave me all of the assistance that I needed. I think that as a French woman who has lived in Ireland for so long, and so understands the social, historic and cultural dimensions of the country, she could appreciate more than anyone the possible interest that a poet as all-encompassing as Baudelaire has had on Ireland's writers.
Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett were all profoundly influenced by the French poet, and had no qualms about admitting it. But Baudelaire's influence does not stop there, more contemporary writers such as Thomas Kinsella and Derek Mahon were also profoundly influenced by the Parisian Master; the flaneur in the former's work, be it Baggot Street or College Green, can be clearly discerned, while the whole 19th century French decadent aesthetic permeates the latter's.
With the publication of Henry Street Arcade ( Editions du Pont de L'Europe, 2021) translated into French by Yan Kouton, I wanted to acknowledge the French Master's enduring influence on modern Irish writing and also to celebrate the wonderful Franco-Irish literary tradition. Yan and I will be launching the collection as part of the festivities on the day.
Please see the Alliance Francaise website for details of all the events taking place on the 8th April.
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