Arthur Rimbaud, aged 17, photographed by Etienne Carjat.

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DR

A great-great-niece of Arthur Rimbaud, Jacqueline Teissier-Rimbaud, said on Friday her opposition to the poet's entry into the Pantheon jointly with Paul Verlaine, a position shared by the association Les Amis de Rimbaud, on the contrary by Roselyne Bachelot who supported a petition in her favor.

If the two poets enter the Pantheon together, “everyone will think 'homosexuals' but that's not true.

Rimbaud did not start his life with Verlaine and did not end it with him, they are just a few years of his youth, ”said Jacqueline Teissier-Rimbaud.

"Associating Rimbaud and Verlaine ad vitam aeternam is not possible"

"Rimbaud was born in Charleville-Mézières, he remains in Charleville-Mézières, with all his family," she insisted, specifying that her son and grandchildren shared her point of view.

Jacqueline Teissier-Rimbaud's great-grandfather was Frédéric, the elder brother of the author of the

Illuminations

.

The position of the Les Amis de Rimbaud association, which has 120 members, joins that of the Teissier-Rimbaud family.

“In general, the Friends of Rimbaud are inclined to think that what is proposed does not suit the character of Arthur, added its president Alain Tourneux.

Associating Rimbaud and Verlaine in a definitive way,

ad vitam aeternam

, is not possible, it is undoubtedly exaggerated.

"

“Arthur Rimbaud had broken with Paul Verlaine and no longer wanted to evoke this period of the four years when he had worked with him.

He absolutely wanted to live another life, which he did when he left for Africa, ”where he lived with a young woman, explained Alain Tourneux.

"Rimbaud became by force of circumstance an icon for many homosexuals but would undoubtedly have defended himself, according to him.

Rimbaud wanted to live intensely and had several lives, from all points of view.

"

The favorable Minister of Culture

The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot supported a petition in favor of the entry of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine into the Panthéon, submitted to President Emmanuel Macron.

"The fact of bringing these two poets who were lovers, yes, together, to the Pantheon would have a scope that is not only historical or literary, but deeply current", enthusiastically the minister in Le

Point

.

At the origin of this "appeal to the President of the Republic", the only one empowered to decide, is a group of intellectuals, academics and academics passionate about the two poets.

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  • Literature

  • Culture

  • Roselyne Bachelot

  • Pantheon