Literature

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani reads literary works closely and uses them as material for thought. In Proust, whom he often quotes, he notes that the beauty of the girls at Balbec comes from their class and their economic ease: for him, great authors see social classes1. He also finds in Proust the memory that overdetermines all the others2, and the return of the past through Vinteuil's little phrase. He sees in it a victory over death by an author who did not believe in eternal life3. He sets Nerval's Angélique beside a dream from Aurélia to show that the second is the first "multiplied by minus one". For him this proves that human productions are determinable, and in this respect he ranks Nerval above Proust4. He also comments on Hölderlin, Gracq, Rousseau's Reveries, where writing shares happiness, and Sylvie, which stands against the power of money. He sees in Kleist and Kafka "trickles of water" leading towards Nazism5. Finally, he links The Night Watches of Bonaventura to the modernity that began at the end of the eighteenth century.

1. 1Que faire ? 3/329 Jan 2016
2. 2#4 Bien-et Mé-faits de l'amnésie...13 Nov 2020
3. 3SCHUBERT - LES CAPTIVES DIVINES • Pagani Parle Musique3 Aug 2022
4. 49 #23 "C'est réglé comme du papier à musique !" • Bach • Nerval • Lévi-Strauss9 Jun 2021
5. 5Robert (Marthe)8 Jan 2020

Introduction produced automatically from the 8 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.