Beyond the intimist illusion Towards a scato-ideo-logy of “Les Effarés”

Composed in 1870, « Les Effarés » remained for Rimbaud an important poem well into 1871. This philological detail alone is nearly enough to call into question an exegetical tradition that sees in the text little more than a sappy mix of miserablist clichés. Yet at the level of its poetic politics of suggestion, the poem fits every bit as coherently into the 1871 corpus as any of the other celebrated critical and provocative texts that the poet later goes on to write. This article seeks to explore some of the social and erotic implications of « Les Effarés », linking it to a larger body of other poems that take up and interrogate themes of exploitation of the poor, of women, and of children.