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In this paper we will explore a poet's conscious use of the unconscious mechanisms operating in dreams to create one of the important poems of the twentieth century. We will examine Paul Valéry's apparently independent use of the identical mechanisms conceptualized in the psychoanalytic theory of dreams to construct the poem “La Jeune Parque” (“The Youngest Fate”). Recognition of this deliberate effort to imitate what has come to be known as the “dream work” makes this complex and often puzzling poem understandable. It also highlights the importance of “La Jeune Parque” in the history of literary form. In addition, we will consider the unsolved mystery of the influence, if any, of Freud on Valéry.
Many authors from biblical times to the present have used “the dream” for literary purposes. The ancient Hebrews and Greeks often used dreams to express prophetic and intuitive thoughts. Shakespeare made use of dreams, sleep, and the state between sleep and awakening for a multitude of purposes. In the more recent past “dream writing,” or the putting down of thoughts while in a semiconscious state, has been attempted. Drugs, too, have been used by writers such as the French romantic poets to induce altered, dreamlike states of consciousness conducive to poetic expression. All of these uses, however, are essentially different from the use of the psychoanalytic dream by Valéry.
The unique and exciting aspect of Valéry's use of the dream in “La Jeune Parque” comes from his painstaking attempt to reproduce faithfully the structure and mechanisms of dreams according to his scientific understanding of their nature. In an article published in 1909 entitled simply “études” (“Studies”),11 Valéry discussed the