Methodos (Jan 2015)
Philosophie de la littérature non narrative
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of non-narrative literature (especially « moralist », with the example of Maxims of La Rochefoucauld) in the current philosophy of literature. We will first note the role played by the novel in the present analysis, and the difficulties, therefore, to think the specific kind of cognitive value of the maxim. But the maxim, as a story, knows to preserve the complexity of human events, and communicate this complexity to the reader. We will see an example of a conscientious reader of La Rochefoucauld and his uses of the text: Queen Christina of Sweden. Finally we will ask if it is possible to propose a « philosophy of literature » with a text as unclassifiable, philosophical and literary, as the text of the French moralist. The question arises whether the philosophy of literature, by looking first to the novel, really has a tool to examine this is neither philosophical nor literary: essay, maxim, etc. If the novel seems historically take the place of the maxim, the maxim nevertheless has its own poetry, its specific knowledge, its originality.
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