Representation

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani understands representation through its prefix: to re-present presupposes a prior presence1 and means that the thing is not present in its immediacy. He gives a recurring example: the ambassador represents an absent country, and in the theatre things have no genuine presence23. For him, this structure is common to memory, dreams, imagination, theatre and diplomacy. He links it to essence, Wesen, being that has passed away4, and takes the image of the tomb that gives presence to an absence, which leads the aesthetic field into an impasse5. He specifies that representation is not immaterial, since music presupposes vibrations. In Hegel, he opposes it to the concept: representation is an image, what one pictures under a word, and the concept replaces it with a determination67. He also distinguishes Vorstellung from Darstellung. In his view, art and religion remain within representation, which knowledge goes beyond8. The passage of the sacred into representation is both an ontological fall and, for Hegel, a form of progress. Naming a thing makes it disappear and makes it present as represented, which gives a power over things.

1. 1Hegel Plage 2/51 Feb 2016 · 2:01:19
2. 2#4.4 Angélique (de Nerval)15 Jan 2018 · 9:51
3. 3Naissance et carnage - Le massacre des Innocents22 Dec 2023 · 1:18:28
4. 4#4.8 Angélique (de Nerval)16 May 2018 · 18:41
5. 5#13 • Retour aux logiques du sujet9 Jul 2020 · 1:36:07
6. 6Hegel Plage 2/51 Feb 2016 · 32:48
7. 7Cynisme de l'extrême centre ou héroïsme épistémique ? La dialectique du milieu • Dominique Pagani20 May 2021 · 40:31
8. 8#4.8 Angélique (de Nerval)16 May 2018 · 1:22:05

Summary produced automatically from 14 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.