"Baudelaire on Original Sin," Françoise Meltzer

A lecture given by Françoise Meltzer (University of Chicago) on May 22, 2014, at the University of Chicago.
By 1851, the poet Charles Baudelaire had become obsessed - in contrast to his previous anarchist position - with the views of the reactionary and fiercely Catholic Joseph de Maistre. Maistre argued that Original Sin "explains everything," a perspective that Baudelaire was to adopt, and which markedly changed his poetry. This lecture will consider Baudelaire's preoccupation with sin in light of Kierkegaard's treatment of anxiety and sin in "The Concept of Anxiety."