The present paper focuses on a specific aspect of Michel Foucault's interest in literature, addressing his study on the French poet and novelist Raymond Roussel. Published only few days before The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1963), Death and the Labyrinth (1963) provides a philosophical reading of some Roussel's writings, in a constant confrontation with the posthumous essay How I Wrote Certain of My Books (1935) in which Roussel explains his peculiar process of composition. Here, I propose considering that Death and the Labyrinth offers not only a critical account on the relationship between philosophy and literature, but it also displays the significance of philosophy towards the study of literature. From this perspective, I will mainly focus on three themes - the death of the language; the repetition of the language; the duality of the language -, showing also that the first source of the Foucauldian further interest on the relationship between “words” and “things” has been Roussel's oeuvre.
Michel foucault e “Raymond Roussel”
Scarlato, Chiara
2023-01-01
Abstract
The present paper focuses on a specific aspect of Michel Foucault's interest in literature, addressing his study on the French poet and novelist Raymond Roussel. Published only few days before The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1963), Death and the Labyrinth (1963) provides a philosophical reading of some Roussel's writings, in a constant confrontation with the posthumous essay How I Wrote Certain of My Books (1935) in which Roussel explains his peculiar process of composition. Here, I propose considering that Death and the Labyrinth offers not only a critical account on the relationship between philosophy and literature, but it also displays the significance of philosophy towards the study of literature. From this perspective, I will mainly focus on three themes - the death of the language; the repetition of the language; the duality of the language -, showing also that the first source of the Foucauldian further interest on the relationship between “words” and “things” has been Roussel's oeuvre.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
