Generic imprecisions and indeterminacy in Villiers de l'Isle-Adam: the Contes cruels

The prose poem, a genre born in the mid-19th century, experienced a true explosion of pu-blications in the second half of this century. However, since the theory that supports the genre was not yet well established, we will find throughout the 19th century a range of generic categories that intersect, among which are the prose poem, lyrical prose, the short story, the short novel, short text or poetic prose. In the 20th century, literary critics propose certain textual features that seem mandatory to define a true prose poem. This work of categorization in a theory of genres has allowed theorists to se-parate the prose poem from the other generic la-bels. In this communication we want to review the Contes cruels de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam in search of arguments that could confirm if the stories contained in this collection correspond to the generic label of short stories or if, on the contrary, the categorization of certain texts should be rethought.