Francis Poulenc avant la lettre: reception of creative work in the optics of metamodernism

Abstract

Relevance of the study. The research addresses the urgent need to revise the entrenched biographical and aesthetic clichés surrounding the work of Francis Poulenc, such as the dichotomy of “monk and hooligan,” which overshadows the profound conceptual unity of his creative method. Given the transition of contemporary culture to the metamodern paradigm, the music of Poulenc is highly relevant as an intuitive precursor to the post-postmodern search for sincerity, authenticity, and the integration of fragmented experiences.

Main Objective. The main objective is to overcome the stereotyping of Poulenc’s art through the prism of metamodernism and to substantiate his unique aesthetic as an avant la lettre expression of metamodern sensibility (chuttievo-chutlyvist').

Methodology. The study adopts a multidimensional approach. The phenomenological method is applied to analyze Poulenc’s aesthetics, which is essentially rooted in the principle of sincerity and the synthesis of life and art. The metamodern optics of oscillation (T. Vermeulen, R. van den Akker) is used as a new methodological framework, enabling the reinterpretation of Poulenc’s contradictions not as artistic fragmentation, but as a multipolar pulsation inherent to the integrity of the modern consciousness. The discourse analysis of musicological sources (H. Lacombe) was implemented to trace how the “aesthetic code” of Poulenc’s creativity – the transformation of suffering into spiritual energy – forms the foundation of his distinctive artistic world.

Results and Conclusions It is substantiated that the paradoxical nature of Poulenc’s work represents a new aesthetic module—metamodern sensibility (chuttievo-chutlyvist'). His creative method is not one of dramatic duality, but a multipolar oscillation that successfully merges opposites (secular and sacred, ironic and sincere) into a single, renewed unity. The “aesthetic code” is formulated as a method of transcendence: transforming chaos and loss into energy of love and beauty, which corresponds to the metaphor of “radiant warmth”. It is concluded that Poulenc’s art resonates with the idea of contemporary retrospection (the ability to exist simultaneously in the past, present, and future), creating an artistic world that, as noted by Lacombe, “denies chronological time”. His legacy provides a key to understanding metamodern authenticity.Significance and Perspectives. The research offers a fundamentally new conceptual approach to the reception of Poulenc’s oeuvre, defining him as a symptom of an era seeking new ways of unity amidst fragmentation. Perspectives for further research lie in applying the concept of “sensibility” as a methodological framework for analyzing the works of other composers of Modernism and Postmodernism whose aesthetic principles were also shaped by the intense oscillation between tradition and experiment.