Remy de Gourmont, le masque du critique

A crucial figure of late nineteenth-century criticism, Remy de Gourmont inevitably confronted the Beuvian figure. The diverse forms this confrontation takes is accompanied by a reflection on literary genius and on the rapports between instinct and intelligence. The comparison between Proust’s text and Gourmont’s thought brings out a questioning of the notion of genre in which critical writing and creative writing nourish each other.