Articles

“Une Parole Totalement Intelligible”: Paul Claudel’s Cosmic Poetics

Thomas Pfau

Abstract

Thomas Pfau examines Paul Claudel’s "cosmic poetics" as an integration of being, knowing, and naming. Drawing on Thomistic realism and anticipating John Milbank’s "Christian ontology," Claudel rejects modern reductionism in favor of a rhythmic, "Gestalt-reading thinking." Through his poetic ontology and the Five Great Odes, Claudel presents the poetic word as a participation in the divine Logos, transforming the sensible world into a "totally intelligible word."