French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Hirt, Baudelaire. Le monde va finir
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

André Hirt, Baudelaire. Le monde va finir

Paris: Editions Kimé, 2010.

EAN 9782841745258

209 pp.

Price: €21

Publisher's description:

The world is going to end. The phrase is indeed Baudelaire's. The poet of Modern Times becomes a philosopher in what is at once an observation, a conclusion, and a prophecy. In this sense, such a thought, rigorously dated, also situates us in our own present. What exactly does Baudelaire foretell? Clearly, the decrepitude of our history, but also that which our present lacks—namely, the inverse of history, which is poetry, this other time for existence.
Subjected to meditation, Baudelaire's phrase reveals in truth all the reasons for poetry and the essential themes of Les Fleurs du Mal. A poem like À une passante delivers in a flash the perspectives of an apocalypse, a utopia, and a temporality in which the origin of the work of art, and the possibility of thought and language, are outlined.
A multi-faceted reading of Baudelaire's phrase and text intersects with Kant's meditations on the idea of the end, Jacques Derrida's on the date, Günther Anders's on the end of the world, Walter Benjamin's on messianism, and Hannah Arendt's on culture, language, and translation.
As both poet and philosopher, Baudelaire appears to us as one of the greatest thinkers of our present, whose catastrophic aporias and prospects for the future he explores jointly and, as it were, under tension.

André Hirt teaches philosophy in the "khâgne" preparatory classes at the Lycée Claude Fauriel in Saint-Étienne.

André Hirt approaches the famous nineteenth-century poet not merely as a master of verse, but as a profound thinker whose reflections on modernity and crisis resonate deeply with contemporary concerns. By examining the chilling declaration that the world is ending, the author uncovers how poetic creation offers a vital counterweight to historical decline. This text carefully connects the themes of Les Fleurs du Mal to broader philosophical traditions, placing the poet in dialogue with major modern thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida.

This compelling volume is especially valuable for students and scholars of nineteenth-century French literature, aesthetic theory, and modern philosophy who wish to explore the intersections between art, temporality, and historical critique. By investigating how poetry preserves the possibility of thought and language amidst catastrophe, the study illuminates the enduring urgency of Baudelaire's vision. It serves as an essential resource for readers seeking to understand the philosophical dimensions of poetic modernism and its enduring legacy for our own times.