Far from the clichés that reduce the phoenix to the figure of genius or of the eternal return, the studies gathered here show the extraordinary renewal of Western myth from Antiquity to the Renaissance, through multiple forms of writing and art. They are organized around four fundamental axes: the ancient philosophical and political phoenix, Christian reinterpretation, the phoenix woman, the phoenix of love. Little by little, symbolic correlations take shape, of which the most astonishing are perhaps the recurring association of the phoenix and the palm trees or that of the phoenix, the dove and the parrot. The transformations of the bird are linked to the birth of new literary genres such as the erotic poem, the genesis epic, the triumphal elegy and the novel. This book reveals the major role of late Antiquity where the liminal and reflexive dimension of a figure that always refers beyond itself, towards “its Other” becomes clearer. Sign of transcendence and emblem of desire, the phoenix ends up symbolizing both the creative word and the poetic word. This fascinating return to the sources of the Western imagination has been led by specialists from different disciplines, patristics, iconology, literature and mythocriticism. - [Abstract]

Language: French

ISBN: 978-2-7535-2735-5; DOI: 10.4000/books.pur.52261