Bonnefoy, Yves

Bonnefoy, Yves (ēv` bônfwä`), 1923–, French poet and critic. His verse, e.g., On the Motion and Immobility of Douve (1953; tr. 1968, rev. ed. 1992), expresses a struggle to establish a concrete connection with the material world. His essays on art and literature include The Act and the Place of Poetry (1989) and studies of Miró and Rimbaud. Edited by Bonnefoy, Mythologies, a scholarly two-volume account of worldwide myths by various French authors, was published in English translation in 1991.

Bibliography

See studies by M. A. Caws (1984), J. Naughton (1984), and A. V. Williams (1990).

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Bonnefoy, Yves

(born June 24, 1923, Tours, France) French poet. A student of mathematics, Bonnefoy moved to Paris and came under the influence of the Surrealists. His poetry describes a thought universe brought to life by an intuition of the “real world.” Among his poetry collections are In the Shadow's Light (1987), The Beginning and End of Snow (1991), and New and Selected Poems (1995). Bonnefoy, also a scholar, compiled Mythologies (1981), a dictionary of mythologies and religions. He held the chair in comparative poetics at the Collège de France from 1981 to 1994.