In Search of the Prose Poem’s Minimal Traits

Abstract

In this essay we will try to define the fundamental elements underlying the structure of every prose poem. In order to achieve this goal, we will study the validity of the criteria that Suzanne Bernard stablished in 1959: brevity, organic unity and gratuity. Considering a wide variety of opinions coming from diverse critics as well as the application of those criteria to a corpus of four authors exemplifying the diversity of the prose poem (Charles Cros, Francis Poictevin, Marie Krysinska and Hugues Rebell), we will try to determine the possible generic configuration that the conjunction of those three characteristics can achieve.