Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
Stéphane Mallarmé, Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard, 1897–1914
Mallarmé’s poem paved the way for a typographic revolution: by treating the page as a unified composition, the use of white space played a critical role akin to intervals in music.
Mallarmé’s poem paved the way for a typographic revolution: by treating the page as a unified composition, the use of white space played a critical role akin to intervals in music.
The long poem by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898), Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (A stroke of dice never will abolish chance), published for the first time in 1897, pushes symbolist logic to its conclusion and sets out the milestones of an authentic typographic revolution. The poet transposes both contemporary musical research, that of Mahler in particular, based on the role played by the interval, as well as the findings of the written press to which he is attentive, having himself directed and edited the magazine La Dernière Mode for two years. Assimilating text composition and musical composition, Mallarmé formulates the hypothesis that the role of white in the layout is comparable to that played by the interval in music. The white is this ”significant silence that it is no less beautiful to compose than the verses” he declares, and he draws the conclusion that the ”whites” are elements in their own right, participating in the unity of the composition, ensuring concordance between its parts and determining harmony by their magnitude and rhythm. The page is thus ”taken as a unit” and the text is set in various faces, sizes, styles (roman, italic, bold, light) and attributes (uppercase, lowercase), all its parts are replying one to another, according to this typographical diversity.
Documents:
— Stéphane Mallarmé Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard, published in the journal Cosmopolis, nº 17, May 1897.
— Posthumous reissue, in volume form, by éditions de La Nouvelle Revue française ( NRF), July 10, 1914.
