Every two weeks, a researcher from the Collège de France discusses a topical scientific issue.
How can you continue to write when you've seen the failure of literature ? Between 1825 and 1945, at a time when the importance of the human being as a thinking subject was being called into question, the poetic works of Leopardi, Baudelaire, Valéry and Montale questioned the act of writing to the point of constituting veritable philosophies of man.
Interview with Silvia Giudice*, researcher in comparative literature at the Collège de France.
In the 19th century, European culture was marked by two philosophical upheavals that changed the way human beings represented themselves. As early as 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of the " death of God ", reflecting the loss of faith in Christian and traditional values in the face of the rise of science and rationalism. With this paradigm shift, the human being loses his place as the source of all knowledge and creation, and becomes the object of scientific thought. Comparative literature researcher Silvia Giudice explains " What Michel Foucault called the "death of man" began with the industrial revolution and the development of the human sciences. It calls into question human specificity, now seen as a social construct, a biological construct or both. " These concepts redefine the identity and place of the human being in a world in search of meaning.
This change in the status of man affects all parts of society, including intellectual and artistic creation, as the movement questions language itself. Language is imperfect, because it cannot faithfully reflect what an individual can experience, do, feel and understand. It is therefore impossible to create a work that is authentically human. The new perception of the human being not only as a thinking subject, but also as the object of that thinking, calls into question the role of the author and of literature in society. The imperfection of language, the writer's only instrument, implies that it is impossible to access the meaning of things. At the time, many authors recognized the failure of literature and the impossibility of continuing to write.
Poetry as philosophy
On the other hand, for others, writing became the condition for reflecting on the very possibility of creating. Among them, the poets Giacomo Leopardi, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Valéry and Eugenio Montale explore the idea of man's inadequacy in their works. Their poetry reveals itself to be both a meditation on human existence and a place for questioning the destiny of the subject. Silvia Giudice nuances :" Despite their differences, these four poets share a pessimistic conception of the human being that brings them together ". Their works call into question the ability of the human being to act on the world through the act of creation. These authors perceive the expressive, cognitive, emotional and sensitive capacities of human beings, and therefore of poets, as lacking. However, the researcher qualifies this by pointing out that" they produce poetry of a very classical form, which seems to express their confidence in language ". The discrepancy between these two aspects raises questions.
The visions of these four poets are shaped both by their own times and by universal existential questioning. Leopardi, a pioneer of philosophical melancholy, questions man's place in an indifferent universe, while Baudelaire explores the ordeal of boredom and the disintegration of the self in a changing society. Valéry and Montale, writing in the 20th century, intensify this reflection on finitude, presenting an even more effete subject, caught up in a quest for meaning that echoes modern philosophical interrogations on the erasure of man. For the researcher, their different texts reveal how the " death of man " runs through European poetry :" Although there are singular nuances in each author, this diversity of approaches underlines the universality and depth of the theme, enriched by each poet according to his or her style and period. "For each of these writers, poetry goes beyond simple aesthetic research ; it becomes a genuine philosophical process.
The beauty of poetry
Silvia Giudice's research highlights the common philosophical motifs of a poetry that becomes philosophy, and a beauty of song that, paradoxically, resists the dissolution of the self. The poetry of these authors questions the meaning of human existence in the face of finitude and the absence of transcendence, to the point of transforming their verses into a field of exploration. She explains :" These poets sing of man's misery, not to console themselves, but to accept its condition. In the work of these authors, poetry becomes a place of existential investigation, where man confronts his own disappearance. " The absurdity of the human condition finds no answer, but questioning itself becomes a form of wisdom.
These poets create a body of work that paradoxically bears witness to human persistence. Despite their dark visions, they make their poetry an act of aesthetic survival. Silvia Giudice points out that, for Leopardi, this beauty lies in the melancholic depth of a contemplation of the infinite, while Baudelaire transforms his malaise into an art that sublimates ugliness. It's obviously different for Valéry, who sees in poetic language the possibility of extending existence beyond mere biography, while Montale composes verses that capture the ephemeral. Through their writing, the beauty of poetic song becomes an act of resistance. If these authors celebrate the paralysis and incapacity of the ego and the erasure of the subject, their writing itself affirms a desire for existence. For the researcher, this touches on the raison d'être of poetry:" These poets use irony as a way of distancing themselves from the world, to transform sensitive perception into knowledge, however impotent and partial it may be. We notice in them a willingness to continue to put themselves to the test, to craft a poetic song, since ultimately, though language is imperfect, it's all we have. " Poetic language becomes, ultimately, the expression of a subject who, though doomed to silence and oblivion, persists through the beauty of his art.
*Silvia Giudice is research assistant toProf. William Marx's Comparative LiteraturesChair.
