Représentations de la crise et crises de la représentation. Du naufrage avec spectateur aux naufrages sans témoins

Abstract

This essay envisions the relationship between the representations of crisis –in this case the migration crisis– and crises of representation –notably the metaphor of the shipwreck which Hans Blumenberg investigated in 1979 in his book Shipwreck with Spectator. The main goal of the essay is to evaluate to what extent a discrepancy appears nowadays between this metaphor and the current reality, while it is still used to report on the on-going crisis. By first examining its recent uses, especially in The Endless Crisis by Myriam Revault d’Allonnes, published in 2012, we come back to Blumenberg’s essay who identified the moment when the metaphor (a moral landmark for a long time) gradually became “de-moralized” when aestheticized in the 18th century. It now appears necessary to “de-artify” the metaphor, by substituting for instance its twin figure of speech –hypotyposis–, in order to no longer report on shipwrecks with spectators, but shipwrecks without witnesses.

Keywords

• migration crisis
• representation
• metaphor
• shipwreck
• hypotyposis
• witness