ABBAYE DE CRÉTEIL / Abbaye poets

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Jean-Marie Grassin

Modifié le 11 janvier 2007

Par gg

ÉTYMOLOGIE / Philology

Name given in November 1906 to a group of French artists, coined earlier in 1905 by the poet Charles Vidrac for the project of a «poetic phalanstery», as «he dreamed» of founding a Rabelaisian abbey :

«rêve l’Abbaye – oh, sans abbé – [...]

Où vivre libres, en thélémites passionnés,

Où vivre quelques-uns et quelques-unes,

Artistes, artisans, buveurs de lune...».

The name is composed of the word abbaye : «abbey» in echo to the ideal anti-monastery Abbaye de Thélème («Abbey of Thelema») invented by François Rabelais in Gargantua (1534, livre I, chap. 25),

and of Créteil, a town in the south of Paris where the Groupe de l’Abbaye («the Abbey’s Group») settled into a dilapidated property.

ÉTUDE SÉMANTIQUE / Definitions

A group of French artists who founded a poetical community outside of Paris

in Créteil away from Parisianism from December 1906 to January 1908.

CORRÉLATS / Collocations

COMMUNAUTÉ/Community,

ÉDITEUR/Editor ; Publisher, ÉTHIQUE/Ethic,

GROUPES/Groups,

IDÉAL/Ideal, INDÉPENDANCE/Independence, INTERACTIF/Interactive modes,

LIVRE D’ARTISTE/Artist’s book,

RABELAISIEN/Rabelaisian, REJET/Rejection,

SOCIABILITÉ/Sociability,

UNANIMISME/Unanimism, UTOPIE/Utopia.

NOMENCLATURES / Families of terms

ARTS/Theory and History of art,

ÉCOLES/Schools, ÉDITION/Publishing,

FRANCE/French studies,

GROUPES / groups

MUSIQUE/Music,

POÉSIE/Poetry,

XX/20th century.

MOTS-CLÉS

Allard (Roger), Association,

Compagnon,

Groupe de Puteaux,

Imprimerie,

Liberté, Lyrisme social,

Professionnel, Phalanstère,

Retraite,

Thélème.

Keywords

Companion,

Disenchantment,

Liberty,

Retirement.

ÉQUIVALENTS / Correspondences

The French names Abbaye de Créteil, or Compagnons de l’Abbaye, or Troupe de Créteil in all languages, or literal translations of such with a reference to French literature.

Anglais / English : the (French) Abbaye poets.

Français / French : l’Abbaye (mais l’Abbaye désigne aussi dans l’histoire et la littérature françaises une prison de Paris fondée en 1522 à l’abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés pour les jeunes nobles incorrigibles, et qui fut la scène des Massacres de Septembre en 1792 sous la Révolution), poètes de l’Abbaye, Abbaye de Créteil, groupe de l’Abbaye.

COMMENTAIRE / Analysis

The group had no stated rules, nor precise ideology, although, through Jules Romain, it was associated with the unanimist school, and social experiments opposed to capitalistic and industrial perspectives. The purpose was to find a new «sociability» away from any establishment. Each member of the self-supporting «commune» (the «Abbaye») devoted time to group labour and to perfecting his own artistic self.

Comparison has been made with Walt Whitman’s lyricism. Inspiration was provided by Luc Durtain’s L’étape accessoire which can be considered as a sort of manifest. The group tried to rid art and literature of artifice and to experience a communal life conducing to a just society based on humanitarian values. Following the ideals set in the 16th century by François Rabelais with the fictional «Abbaye de Thélème», in Gargantua, each artist tried to preserve his own values and individuality («Fais ce que voudras» : do what you [really] want to do).

Among members were the poets : René Arcos, Henri Martin-Bazun (b. 1881), George Duhamel (1884-1966), Alexandre Mercereau, Charles Vildrac (b. 1882) ; the painters : H. Doucet, Berthold Mahn, Albert Coteizes ; the composer : Albert Doyen ; and the typograph : Lucien Linard. The leader was Charles Vildrac, the brother-in-law of George Duhamel who wrote his first volume of poems at the abbaye in 1907 and told his experience there in Le désert de Bièvres.

Publishing and printing were supposed to provide sufficient means of living to the pursuit of artistic projects in utter liberty. The Abbaye published about ten books, notably Jules Romain’s La vie unanime. Financial difficulty eroded the spirit of cooperation and initiative; divisions finally led to the dissolution of the so-called Abbaye and put an end to the libertarian experiment.Jean-Marie Grassin

Université de Limoges

Bibliographie / References

Duhamel, Georges.– Le désert de Bièvres [a novel in the Chronique des Pasquier series].– Paris: Mercure de France, 1937, 1963.

Duhamel, Georges.– Le temps de la recherche [an autobiographical novel].– Paris : Mercure de France, 1947.

Cahiers de l’Abbaye de Créteil.– Paris: Ass. des amis de Georges Duhamel, périodique.

Vildrac, Charles.– Le livre d’amour [poems].– Paris: Les éditions de Minuit, 1937.