Abstract
Based on the notion of potential space developed by psychoanalyst Winnicot, and in the wake of his reflections on culture as sophisticated play practices, HélèneMerlin-Kajman proposes to consider reading as a transitional space, where the relationship and passage between the external and internal worlds are constituted. She questions the role of the critic in this relationship : how can the critic enter the work without breaking this space ? According to psychoanalyst André Green, he can't. HélèneMerlin-Kajman qualifies Green's assertion. Drawing on the experiments she and others are carrying out on the Transitionsdigital space , the French literature professor shows that an interpretation that does not break the potential space is possible. This is what she calls transitional reading, which she defines not as a particular hermeneutic, but as a quality of reading such that the commentary does not destroy the transitionality of the text. The vocation of lectures is to maintain this flexible transitional space, without breaking it.
