Synesthesia, Sin-aesthetics, and the Meaning of Sin in Charles Baudelaire

This essay identifies an incongruity between “synesthesia” as conceptualized by the empirical sciences and the oversaturation of the senses found in Baudelaire’s work. Emphasizing the correspondence between les sens and le sens, I argue for a sin-aesthetics in Baudelaire’s writings whereby the body is represented as inherently value-­laden by virtue of being damned. This is represented in his poetry, his writings on hashish and opium, and his pieces on aesthetics. In emphasizing the importance of sin in his work I propose an alternative to the dominant reading of Baudelaire as a modern figure, and suggest that the ontological condition of sin is indicative of a certain medievalism, reflected in his alchemy and occultism, his traditionalism and disdain for progress, the influence of Wagner, and his belief in redemption through sin. I claim that Baudelairean embodiment is decidedly at odds with modern, empirical conceptions of the body, and prompts us to consider the senses as value-­laden and inseparable from our moral ontology.