At the borders of visibility: Word’s diffusion and dis-figuration in Henri Pichette’s Les Épiphanies

Abstract

Henri Pichette’s dramatic work has barely been the particular focus of scholar’s attention. Nevertheless, his most famous play, Les Épiphanies,published a few years after Second World War, still continues to cast its spell on readers and artists, and raises many questions. His dramatic work pushes back the frontiers of visibility. It draws upon several interwoven and apparently contradictory discursive and iconic modes, which  substantiate each other. Keeping any stylistic analysis at some distance, we will rather try to find out and clarify one of Pichette’s structural framework, who blurs and conceals what he pretends to bring to light. We will analyze how the link between language and silent images works. On stage as well as on the pages of the printed book, there is an articulation between what is blurred or erased and what is revealed.