“Paris” A Rimbaldian obscenity

This article proposes a new reading of Rimbaud’s sonnet “Paris”. It is the ribald atmosphere of the meetings of the Parisian Zutistes which forms the horizon of expectation of this so-called “connerie” (bullshit, a [fucking] joke, nonsense). The text appears to be an accumulation of proper nouns capable of evoking sexual connotations to a public fond of obscene puns. So the key of the poem may be found in nineteenth-century erotic dictionaries that reveal the indecent meaning of the apparently innocuous names.