Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
Encyclopedia
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (March 6, 1940, Tours
– January 27, 2007, Paris
) was a French
philosopher
. He was also a literary critic
and translator
.
Lacoue-Labarthe was influenced by and wrote extensively on Martin Heidegger
, Jacques Derrida
, Jacques Lacan
, German Romanticism
, Paul Celan
, and Gérard Granel
. He also translated works by Heidegger, Celan, Friedrich Nietzsche
, Friedrich Hölderlin
, and Walter Benjamin
into French.
Lacoue-Labarthe was a member and president of the Collège international de philosophie
.
, a colleague at the Université Marc Bloch in Strasbourg
. Early collaborations included Le Titre de la lettre: une lecture de Lacan (1973; trans., The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan) and L'Absolu littéraire: théorie de la littérature du romantisme allemand (1978; trans., The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism).
In 1980 Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy organized a conference at Cerisy-la-Salle, centered around Derrida's 1968 paper Les fins de l'homme. Following this conference and at Derrida's request, in November 1980 Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy founded the Centre de Recherches Philosophiques sur la Politique (Centre for Philosophical Research on the Political). The Centre operated for four years, pursuing philosophical rather than empirical approaches to political questions. During that period Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy produced several important papers, together and separately. Some of these texts appear in Les Fins de l'homme à partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 août 1980 (1981), Rejouer le politique (1981), La retrait du politique (1983), and Le mythe nazi (1991, revised edition; originally published as Les méchanismes du fascisme, 1981). Many of these texts are gathered in translation in Retreating the Political (1997).
and Jean-François Lyotard
. The monograph submitted for that degree was La fiction du politique (1988; trans., Heidegger, Art, and Politics), a study of Heidegger's relation to National Socialism. These works predate the explosion of interest in the political dimensions of Heidegger's thought which followed the publication of a book by Victor Farías
.
In Poetry as Experience Lacoue-Labarthe argued that, even though Celan's poetry was deeply informed by Heidegger's philosophy, Celan was long aware of Heidegger's association with the Nazi party and therefore fundamentally circumspect toward the man and transformative in his reception of his work. Celan was nonetheless willing to meet Heidegger. Heidegger was a professed admirer of Celan's writing, although Celan's poetry never received the kind of philosophical attention which Heidegger gave to the work of poets such as Friedrich Hölderlin or Georg Trakl
. Celan's poem "Todtnauberg
," however, seems to hold out the possibility of a rapprochement between their work. In this respect Heidegger's work was perhaps redeemable for Celan, even if that redemption was not played out in the encounter between the two men.
Lacoue-Labarthe considered that Heidegger's greatest failure was not his involvement in the National Socialist movement but his "silence on the extermination" and his refusal to engage in a thorough deconstruction of Nazism. He also believed, however, that Heidegger's thought offers pathways to a philosophical confrontation with Nazism, pathways which Heidegger failed to follow, but which Lacoue-Labarthe did attempt to pursue.
, and collaborated with Michel Deutsch to stage the work at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg on June 15 and 30, 1978. Lacoue-Labarthe and Deutsch returned to the Théâtre national de Strasbourg to collaborate on a 1980 production of Euripdies'
Phoenician Women
. Lacoue-Labarthe's translation of Hölderlin's version of Oedipus the King
was staged in Avignon
in 1998, with Charles Berling
in the title role.
* contents of this book do not correspond exactly to those of the book it otherwise translates
** collects essays from 1979, 1981, and 1983 and others not previously published
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
– January 27, 2007, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. He was also a literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
.
Lacoue-Labarthe was influenced by and wrote extensively on Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
, German Romanticism
German Romanticism
For the general context, see Romanticism.In the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its...
, Paul Celan
Paul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
, and Gérard Granel
Gérard Granel
Gérard Granel was a French philosopher and translator.- Life and work :Born in Paris, Granel attended the lycée Louis-le-Grand and the courses of Michel Alexandre, Jean Hyppolite and, later, of Louis Althusser and Jean Beaufret...
. He also translated works by Heidegger, Celan, Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Friedrich Hölderlin
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
, and Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
into French.
Lacoue-Labarthe was a member and president of the Collège international de philosophie
Collège international de philosophie
The Collège international de philosophie , located in Paris' 5th arrondissement, is a tertiary education institute placed under the trusteeship of the French government department of research and chartered under the French 1901 Law on associations...
.
Collaboration with Jean-Luc Nancy
Lacoue-Labarthe wrote several books and articles in collaboration with Jean-Luc NancyJean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe...
, a colleague at the Université Marc Bloch in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
. Early collaborations included Le Titre de la lettre: une lecture de Lacan (1973; trans., The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan) and L'Absolu littéraire: théorie de la littérature du romantisme allemand (1978; trans., The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism).
In 1980 Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy organized a conference at Cerisy-la-Salle, centered around Derrida's 1968 paper Les fins de l'homme. Following this conference and at Derrida's request, in November 1980 Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy founded the Centre de Recherches Philosophiques sur la Politique (Centre for Philosophical Research on the Political). The Centre operated for four years, pursuing philosophical rather than empirical approaches to political questions. During that period Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy produced several important papers, together and separately. Some of these texts appear in Les Fins de l'homme à partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 août 1980 (1981), Rejouer le politique (1981), La retrait du politique (1983), and Le mythe nazi (1991, revised edition; originally published as Les méchanismes du fascisme, 1981). Many of these texts are gathered in translation in Retreating the Political (1997).
On Martin Heidegger
In 1986 Lacoue-Labarthe published a book on Celan and Heidegger entitled La poésie comme expérience (1986; trans., Poetry as Experience). Lacoue-Labarthe received his doctorat d'état in 1987 with a jury led by Gérard Granel and including Derrida, George SteinerGeorge Steiner
Francis George Steiner, FBA , is an influential European-born American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, translator, and educator. He has written extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the impact of the Holocaust...
and Jean-François Lyotard
Jean-François Lyotard
Jean-François Lyotard was a French philosopher and literary theorist. He is well known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s and the analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition...
. The monograph submitted for that degree was La fiction du politique (1988; trans., Heidegger, Art, and Politics), a study of Heidegger's relation to National Socialism. These works predate the explosion of interest in the political dimensions of Heidegger's thought which followed the publication of a book by Victor Farías
Victor Farias
Victor Farías is a native Chilean historian and author. A one-time student of Martin Heidegger, he is perhaps best known for his controversial book Heidegger and Nazism , which concluded that Heidegger's philosophy is inherently fascist. His writings are informed by his philosophical education in...
.
In Poetry as Experience Lacoue-Labarthe argued that, even though Celan's poetry was deeply informed by Heidegger's philosophy, Celan was long aware of Heidegger's association with the Nazi party and therefore fundamentally circumspect toward the man and transformative in his reception of his work. Celan was nonetheless willing to meet Heidegger. Heidegger was a professed admirer of Celan's writing, although Celan's poetry never received the kind of philosophical attention which Heidegger gave to the work of poets such as Friedrich Hölderlin or Georg Trakl
Georg Trakl
Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists.- Life and work :Trakl was born and lived the first 18 years of his life in Salzburg, Austria...
. Celan's poem "Todtnauberg
Todtnauberg
Todtnauberg is a German village in Black Forest belonging to the municipality of Todtnau, in Baden-Württemberg. It is named after the homonym mount and is famous because it was the place where the German philosopher Martin Heidegger had a chalet.-Geography:The village is located at amsl, in...
," however, seems to hold out the possibility of a rapprochement between their work. In this respect Heidegger's work was perhaps redeemable for Celan, even if that redemption was not played out in the encounter between the two men.
Lacoue-Labarthe considered that Heidegger's greatest failure was not his involvement in the National Socialist movement but his "silence on the extermination" and his refusal to engage in a thorough deconstruction of Nazism. He also believed, however, that Heidegger's thought offers pathways to a philosophical confrontation with Nazism, pathways which Heidegger failed to follow, but which Lacoue-Labarthe did attempt to pursue.
Theatrical work
Lacoue-Labarthe was also involved in theatrical productions. He translated Hölderlin's version of AntigoneAntigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...
, and collaborated with Michel Deutsch to stage the work at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg on June 15 and 30, 1978. Lacoue-Labarthe and Deutsch returned to the Théâtre national de Strasbourg to collaborate on a 1980 production of Euripdies'
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
Phoenician Women
Phoenician Women
The Phoenician Women is a tragedy by Euripides, based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who are trapped in Thebes by the war...
. Lacoue-Labarthe's translation of Hölderlin's version of Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...
was staged in Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
in 1998, with Charles Berling
Charles Berling
Charles Berling is a French actor, director, scenario writer and producer born on April 30, 1958 in Saint-Mandé in Val de Marne .-Biography:Son of a marine physician, he is also the nephew of the literary critic Raymond Picard...
in the title role.
Primary literature
| French | English | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Titre de la lettre: une lecture de Lacan | 1973 | ISBN 2-7186-0002-0 | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy | The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan | 1992 | ISBN 0-7914-0962-7 | trans. François Raffoul and David Pettigrew |
| L'Absolu littéraire: théorie de la littérature du romantisme allemand | 1978 | ISBN 2-02-004936-8 | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy | The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism | 1988 | ISBN 0-88706-661-5 | trans. Philip Barnard and Cheryl Lester |
| Portrait de l'artiste, en général | 1979 | ISBN 2-267-00162-4 | |||||
| Le Sujet de la philosophie: Typographies 1 | 1979 | ISBN 2-08-226011-9 | The Subject of Philosophy | 1993 | ISBN 0-8166-1698-1 | trans. Thomas Trezise, Hugh J. Silverman Hugh J. Silverman Hugh J. Silverman is an American philosopher and cultural theorist whose writing, lecturing, teaching, editing, and innovative international conferencing has participated in the development of a postmodern network that reaches around the world... et al.* |
|
| Les Fins de l'homme à partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 août 1980 (ed.) | 1981 | ISBN 2-7186-0207-4 | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy | see Retreating the Political below for translations of their contributions | |||
| Rejouer le politique (ed.) | 1981 | ISBN | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy | see Retreating the Political below for translations of their contributions | |||
| La retrait du politique (ed.) | 1983 | ISBN | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy | see Retreating the Political below for translations of their contributions | |||
| Retrait de l’artiste en deux personnes | 1985 | ISBN 2-904546-04-9 | |||||
| L'Imitation des modernes: Typographies 2 | 1986 | ISBN 2-08-226011-9 | Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics | 1989 (Harvard), 1998 (Stanford) | ISBN 0-8047-3282-5 | ed. Christopher Fynsk Christopher Fynsk Christopher Fynsk is Head of the School of Language and Literature at the University of Aberdeen, Director of the Centre for Modern Thought and Professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He is well known for his work relating the political and literary aspects of continental... * |
|
| La Poésie comme expérience | 1986 | ISBN 2-267-00438-0 | Poetry as Experience | 1999 | ISBN 0-8047-3427-5 | trans. Andrea Tarnowski | |
| La Fiction du politique: Heidegger, l'art et la politique | 1988, revised | ISBN 2-267-00531-X | Heidegger, Art, and Politics: the Fiction of the Political | 1990 | ISBN 0-631-17155-X | trans. Chris Turner | |
| Sit venia verbo | 1988 | ISBN 2-267-00565-4 | w/ Michel Deutsch | ||||
| Musica ficta: figures de Wagner | 1991 | ISBN 2-267-00863-7 | Musica ficta: Figures of Wagner | 1994 | ISBN 0-8047-2385-0 | trans. Felicia McCarren | |
| Le mythe nazi | 1991 | ISBN 2-87678-078-X | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe... |
||||
| Pasolini, une improvisation : d’une sainteté | 1995 | ISBN 2-84103-037-7 | "Pasolini, an improvisation: Of a Saintliness" | Umbr(a) 2005 | ISBN 0-9666452-8-6 | trans. Steven Miller | |
| Retreating the Political | 1997 | ISBN 0-415-15163-5 | w/ Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe... , ed. Simon Sparks** |
||||
| Métaphrasis; suivi de Le théâtre de Hölderlin | 1998 | ISBN 2-13-049336-X | |||||
| Phrase | 2000 | ISBN 2-267-01561-7 | |||||
| Poétique de l'histoire | 2002 | ISBN 2-7186-0578-2 | |||||
| Heidegger: la politique du poème | 2002 | ISBN 2-7186-0593-6 | Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry | 2007 | ISBN 0-2520-3153-9 | trans. Jeff Fort | |
| Agonie terminée, agonie interminable | 2004 | ISBN 2-7186-0626-6 | |||||
| Le chant des muses: Petite conférence sur la musique | 2005 | ISBN 2-2274-7528-5 | |||||
| L’«allégorie»: Suivi de Un commencement | 2006 | ISBN 2-7186-0724-6 | |||||
| Préface à la disparition | 2009 | ISBN 2-2670-2033-5 | |||||
| Ecrits Sur l'Art | 2009 | ISBN 2-8406-6282-5 | |||||
Secondary literature
- Jacques Derrida, "Désistance," in Psychè (English translation in Lacoue-Labarthe, Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics).
- Pierre JorisPierre JorisPierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946 and raised in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, is a poet and translator. He left Luxembourg at nineteen and since then has lived in the US, Great Britain, North Africa and France...
, Heidegger, France, Politics, The University. - John Martis, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: Representation and the Loss of the Subject (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005).
- Avital RonellAvital RonellAvital Ronell is a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and a Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University, where she co-directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project...
, "The Differends of Man," in Finitude's Score.
External links
- Catastrophe and Caesura has videos of a memorial conference for Lacoue-Labarthe held at NYU in 2007.
- Oedipus as Figure, Radical PhilosophyRadical PhilosophyRadical Philosophy is a British academic journal of critical theory and continental philosophy, appearing six times a year. It was established in 1972 with the purpose of providing a forum for the theoretical work which was emerging in the wake of the radical movements of the 1960s, in philosophy...
. - The Ister (2004) is a film based on a 1942 lecture course by Martin Heidegger about Friedrich Hölderlin (Hölderlin's Hymn "The Ister"). It features extensive interviews with Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc NancyJean-Luc NancyJean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe...
, Bernard StieglerBernard StieglerBernard Stiegler is a French philosopher at Goldsmiths, University of London and at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne. In addition, he is Director of the , founder in 2005 of the political and cultural group, , and founder in 2010 of the philosophy school,...
, and Hans-Jürgen SyberbergHans-Jürgen SyberbergHans-Jürgen Syberberg is a German film director, whose best known film is his lengthy feature, Hitler: A Film from Germany.- Early life :...
. * Official site. - Brief commemoration by the makers of The Ister. A 2006 international conference, Deconstructing Mimesis - Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, was held at the SorbonneSorbonneThe Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris : Overview Complete audio recordings (including Lacoue-Labarthe's and Nancy's lectures). - Commemoration by Christopher FynskChristopher FynskChristopher Fynsk is Head of the School of Language and Literature at the University of Aberdeen, Director of the Centre for Modern Thought and Professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He is well known for his work relating the political and literary aspects of continental...
(dated January 31, 2007). Obituary, LibérationLibérationLibération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
. Obituary, by Jean-Luc Nancy, also from Libération. Obituary, Le MondeLe MondeLe Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, by Jacob Rogozinski. Biography and bibliography. Monogrammes X (an exchange of letters with Nancy). De Hölderlin à Marx: mythe, initiation, tragédie, an interview. Radio France coverage.