The “poetics of the home base”: a heritage tool for the “Rimbaud brand” in Charleville-Mézières

Abstract

While Arthur Rimbaud constantly shunned his native city, which he himself described as "the most idiotic of the small provincial towns", the city today paradoxically places him at the centre of its cultural policy. Through the official discourse it constructs about itself, the town presents itself as the poet's "home base": collages, frescoes and photographs of Rimbaud adorn the town's walls; his house and the museum dedicated to him are tourist hotspots; extracts from his texts become brand names and give their names to shops and a music festival. All these elements help to create a 'Rimbaldian atmosphere' in the city. This article reports on a ground study conducted in Charleville over a two-year period. With sociology of literature and a pragmatic approach to the literary, we will attempt to objectivise the ways in which a range of mediations and institutional logics contribute to the heritage role played by literature.