Intermédialité photographie/texte dans Rimbaud le fils de Pierre Michon.

The novel Rimbaud le fils written by Pierre Michon is analysed in this study, using the theoretical model of modalities and modes of media elaborated by Lars Elleström (2010), the typology of intermediality defined by Werner Wolf (2002) and Irina Rajewsky’s (2010) metatheoretical reflections upon the concept of borders. The novel by Michon relates to some famous photos that have become important in creating the understandings of Arthur Rimbaud as a poet and a myth. The guiding question of the analysis has been: How can the intermedial relations to the photos create meaning in the novel? The theoretical model of Elleström has been applied in order to define the modalities and modes involved in the photography and in the written text of the novel. Thereby the significant differences and similarities between the different media have become distinguishable. The categorization proposed by Wolf and the remarks made by Rajewsky on the concepts of borders, have helped to link together the observations of modalities and modes with the hermeneutic reading of the text. Using the intermedial references has shown to be a possible way to express or to reinforce the literary expression of for instance: the heaviness of the literary legacy and mythology, the absent, the genius, the departure, the silence, the religious language, the unknown, the literary sham, the survival and the protective power of an expressive richness that relates to or implies several semiotic systems.