Paul Claudel's Theatre: A Porcine Poetics of Incarnation

A review of the two-volume Pléiade edition of Paul Claudel's theatre, published by Gallimard, uses the metaphor of the pig to explore Claudel's gluttonous, all-devouring Catholic poetics. The author recounts Claudel's death on February 23, 1955, after ignoring a doctor's diet to feast on andouillette on Mardi Gras, suffering a heart attack on Ash Wednesday. The surrealists, who despised Claudel as a bourgeois diplomat, had previously mocked him in an open letter for selling lard for a nation of pigs. The review argues that Claudel's art, like a pig, transforms everything into succulent flesh, including sin. His theatre spans the globe—America in L'Échange, China in Partage de Midi, and locations from Spain to Mogador in Le Soulier de Satin—and involves angels as servants of desire. Central to Claudel's drama is woman, the impenetrable mystery that joins Eros and Agape, as exemplified by characters Marthe, Ysé, and Rodrigue. The review concludes that Claudel's theatre leaves desire hollowing out toward God.