L’esthétique de la condensation chez Villiers, Huysmans et Mallarmé

This article considers the role of condensation as employed in the works of Villiers, Huysmans and Mallarmé. It seeks to demonstrate that the concept of condensation includes both a challenge to the use of language as practiced by the contemporaries of these three authors whilst defining an aesthetic built on the suppression of superfluous language diametrically opposed to the verbosity of the time.