The borders of the non-representable: from K. P. Moritz to M. Blanchot.

Abstract

This text corresponds to the first chapter of the first part of a thesis on De-symbolization in contemporary culture. The aim of the first part is to highlight the reappropriation by many contemporary authors of the romantic theory of the symbol as it is set up from K. P. Moritz to Kant. It is found that for the three authors studied in this chapter, T. Todorov, G. Durand, and M. Blanchot, "The symbol-according to the famous formula of the Athenaum-represents the unrepresentable. ". It is emphasized that the symbol corresponds not only to a mode of significance then opposed to allegory, but is also a mode of reference to an extra-linguistic "reality". The symbol conceived in that way is not as autotelic as certain readings of the texts of Iena’group may have led to believe, but the referent which is in question must be thought on another way than it is in linguistics or in logic. It has a no-thematic presence before the language operation and, therefore, it cannot be reduced to a « language effect ».