La perte de l’origine comme fondement des poétiques modernes de la mémoire

Abstract

The ancient and classical tradition assume the memoria, which reproduces a stable and hierarchical order, able to base the exemplary and topical value of stories. This “onto-theological” model (Kant) is radically overthrown by the one that prevails in modernity — since the end of the eighteenth century: forgetting the metaphysical foundation is becoming a paradoxical matrix of memory. Discontinuity becomes the condition of our relation to the past, which can no longer be sustained on an identifiable origin, but must be invented. Modern literature becomes a question of ignorance, and is condemned to construct optimistic (Novalis, Michon, Perec) or pessimistic (Senancour, Tieck, Conrad) answers to this question.

Keywords

• memory
• oblivion of origin
• autobiography
• modernity
• romanticism
• identity
• opacity