Écart et souveraineté dans les essais de Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Emerson’s essays, the question of distance is inseparable from the problem of sovereignty. First because, according to him, I am master of my own thoughts only to the extent that I « recognize » them as mine, that is to say if I seek to narrow the gap that separates me from what is properly mine...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2011-10-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/2177 |
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| Summary: | In Emerson’s essays, the question of distance is inseparable from the problem of sovereignty. First because, according to him, I am master of my own thoughts only to the extent that I « recognize » them as mine, that is to say if I seek to narrow the gap that separates me from what is properly mine by performatively laying claim to my most intimate possessions. Secondly, and more importantly, because to be aware of the dangerous and necessary distance between me and myself is to understand that a part of myself has always already been consigned to a position beyond the sphere of articulated speech, in a pre‑subjective Outside exposed to sovereign appropriation. While this component of the mind is utterly powerless (that is to say defenceless against the claims staked by competing interlocutors), it is not without force, if by this one means the privilege of the indispensable. The role of the Emersonian « scholar » is to testify to its existence and to remind the « devout » followers of Truth that nothing true could be said were it not for this impersonal Outside which all speech invokes. « I » cannot speak at all, let alone ask questions or answer them truthfully, unless some account has been taken, from a position of exteriority, of the simple fact of language, which affirms nothing save for the promise that, thanks to it, something—anything—can be said. |
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| ISSN: | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |