27. The Mountain of Death: The Meaning of Celan’s Meeting with Heidegger* Todtnauberg Arnica, Augentrost, derTrunk aus dem Brunnen mit demSternwürfel drauf, in derHütte die in das Buch—wessen Namen nahms aufvor dem meinen?—,die in dies Buchgeschriebene Zeile voneiner Hoffnung, heute,auf eines DenkendenkommendesWortim Herzen, Waldwasen, uneingeebnet,Orchis und Orchis, einzeln,… Read more
26. Reading the Signifier* My essay on the freedom of signifiers in Plato’s Cratylus [1] was written as an extension of work on that dialogue that I had pursued with a group of researchers from the University of Tübingen who were defenders of Plato’s unwritten doctrine. At a colloquium focused on the theory of language, I had… Read more
25. A Future in the Past: Peter Szondi’s Material Hermeneutics* Peter Szondi’s redefinition of the science of literature challenged the influence that the analysis of Heidegger’s structure of Dasein had exerted in Germany, in university circles, both during and after World War II. [1] Szondi takes aim at the model constituted by Heidegger’s commentaries on the poems of… Read more
24. Grasping Hermeneutics* Peter Szondi was a very important influence, in my personal and intellectual life first of all, but equally in the history of my work, thanks to the discussions we carried on for more than twelve years about literatures—of which he was a marvelous connoisseur and judge—and about the theory of interpretation. His dense and demonstrative essays have surely transformed literary… Read more
23. Between Hölderlin and Celan* A thunderbolt The occasion was the meeting of the Hölderlin Society in Tübingen on May 22, 1986, on the topic “Hölderlin, the View from France.” [1] André du Bouchet, in the notes and reflections associated with the talk he gave on that occasion, referred at the start to another talk on Hölderlin… Read more
22. A Sonnet, a Poetics—Mallarmé: “Le vierge, le vivace …”* A poem by Mallarmé, the second of the tetrad titled “Plusieurs sonnets” in the 1899 Deman edition, “Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui” (Mallarmé 1998:36 [1] ) has generated abundant commentary; it has been understood in contradictory ways. It could serve as a model, and lead… Read more
21. Reading the Codes* The hermeneutics of texts decodes what has always been coded, in some sense; this is the rule, and it is the underlying principle of univocity, which integrates ambivalence and polysemy. Its practice has not seemed to me to be limited to a particular literature. I have needed to know the language of the literature in question, along with relevant… Read more
20. Benjamin Reading Kafka* Kafka Then and now Kafka’s unique work—unique in more than one sense—never brings to light anything but its own making, in progress; its status is not that of the already “made,” however carefully composed it may seem (even though the texts were often written in great haste). The strongest linguistic concentration tolerates the maintenance of a certain distance,… Read more
19. The Scientistic Model: Freud and Empedocles* Preliminary remark A dichotomy is introduced into the analysis of any object of study. The phenomenon studied is situated along a line of evolution. Given the goal of assigning meaning, this dichotomy produces a division between anticipation (or “intuition”) and primitivism, between “going beyond” and “falling short.” In fact, it is only a matter of… Read more
18. Reading a Reference?* Freud was preoccupied by the role he had had to attribute—or so he thought—to the death principle, a role for which Empedocles’ cosmogony provided a distant model. I later reconstituted that cosmology in very different terms, which were not understood in the same way in Freud’s day. [1] Freud was undoubtedly led astray by… Read more
