Apollinaire : des jeux de mots aux jeux de sens, ou « Soleil cou coupé »

Apollinaire: from plays on words to plays on meanings, or “Soleil cou coupé” Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), who introduced the new spirit in French poetry at the dawn of the 20th century, is most known for being the author of Alcools. With this collection of poems published in 1913, the new poetry was born. Both enigmatic and structured, devoid of any punctuation and open to interpretation, it also offers very extravagant and daring words combinations, and is therefore subject to unexpected readings. Indeed, to create a strongly new and modern poetic language, Apollinaire doesn’t hesitate to use for example the homonymic and polysemic peculiarities of language – where puns come out, hateful for some people, but remarkable for others – that he puts at the heart of his poetic approach in order to surprise, playing with ambiguity. After a quick return on the story of the pun, this study is devoted to play on words and meanings in the poetic art of Apollinaire. It especially focuses on highlighting their two functions: breaking the linearity of the poetic text and creating a new dimension of meaning and reading.