Bruit et harmonie dans les Illuminations

The Illuminations have traditionally inspired interpretations centred on the concepts of discordance and incoherence. Following the works by Jacques Rivière, Paul Valéry, and Martin Heidegger, this article studies the dialectic between musical discordance and harmony in Rimbaud’s prose poems, recalling his Romantic ancestry. It is, however, only the evocation of silence which appears to ratify the impossibility of true harmony.