The Event in Stevens as Poetic Justification

This chapter combines the French philosopher Alain Badiou’s writings on the concept of the event with Wallace Stevens’ neglected theatrical works Carlos Among the Candles and Three Travellers Watch a Sunrise. Beginning by considering how Stevens sits alongside other modernist poets whose theatrical works have been neglected, the chapter proceeds to think about how Badiou’s concept of ‘in-aesthetics’ illuminates Stevens’ theatrical performances. The chapter then considers how questions of theatricality and performance are not just relevant to Stevens’s underappreciated dramatic works, but relevant for Stevens’ spoetry too, through a detailed reading of ‘The Auroras of Autumn’