French philosopher, literary critic, and translator
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
(
l?-
KOO
l?-
BART
,
French:
[laku
laba?t]
; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French
philosopher
. He was also a
literary critic
and
translator
. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend
Jean-Luc Nancy
.
Lacoue-Labarthe was influenced by and wrote extensively on
Martin Heidegger
,
Jacques Derrida
,
Jacques Lacan
,
German Romanticism
,
Paul Celan
, and
Gerard Granel
.
[1]
He also translated works by Heidegger, Celan,
Friedrich Nietzsche
,
Friedrich Holderlin
, and
Walter Benjamin
into French.
Lacoue-Labarthe was a member and president of the
College international de philosophie
.
Work
[
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]
Collaboration with Jean-Luc Nancy
[
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]
Lacoue-Labarthe wrote several books and articles in collaboration with
Jean-Luc Nancy
, a colleague at the
Universite 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 litteraire: theorie de la litterature 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 le 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 a partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 aout 1980
(1981),
Rejouer le politique
(1981),
La retrait du politique
(1983), and
Le mythe nazi
(1991, revised edition; originally published as
Les mechanismes du fascisme
, 1981). Many of these texts are gathered in translation in
Retreating the Political
(1997).
On Martin Heidegger
[
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]
In 1986 Lacoue-Labarthe published a book on Celan and Heidegger entitled
La poesie comme experience
(1986; trans.,
Poetry as Experience
). Lacoue-Labarthe received his
doctorat d'etat
in 1987 with a jury led by Gerard Granel and including Derrida,
George Steiner
and
Jean-Francois 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 Farias
.
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 Holderlin 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.
Theatrical work
[
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]
Lacoue-Labarthe was also involved in theatrical productions. He translated Holderlin's version of
Antigone
, and collaborated with
Michel Deutsch
[
fr
]
to stage the work at the
Theatre national de Strasbourg
[
fr
]
on 15 and 30 June 1978.
[2]
Lacoue-Labarthe and Deutsch returned to the
Theatre national de Strasbourg
to collaborate on a 1980 production of
Euripides'
Phoenician Women
.
[3]
Lacoue-Labarthe's translation of Holderlin's version of
Oedipus Rex
was staged in
Avignon
in 1998, with
Charles Berling
in the title role.
[4]
Bibliography
[
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]
French
|
English
|
Le Titre de la lettre: une lecture de Lacan
|
1973
|
ISBN
2-7186-0002-0
|
with Jean-Luc Nancy
|
The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan
|
1992
|
ISBN
0-7914-0962-7
|
trans. Francois Raffoul and David Pettigrew
|
L'Absolu litteraire: theorie de la litterature du romantisme allemand
|
1978
|
ISBN
2-02-004936-8
|
with 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 general
|
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
et al.*
|
Les Fins de l'homme a partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 aout 1980
(ed.)
|
1981
|
ISBN
2-7186-0207-4
|
with Jean-Luc Nancy
|
see
Retreating the Political
below for translations of their contributions
|
Rejouer le politique
(ed.)
|
1981
|
ISBN
|
with Jean-Luc Nancy
|
see
Retreating the Political
below for translations of their contributions
|
La retrait du politique
(ed.)
|
1983
|
ISBN
|
with 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
*
|
La Poesie comme experience
|
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
|
with 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
|
with
Jean-Luc Nancy
|
|
Pasolini, une improvisation : d’une saintete
|
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
|
with
Jean-Luc Nancy
, ed. Simon Sparks**
|
Metaphrasis; suivi de Le theatre de Holderlin
|
1998
|
ISBN
2-13-049336-X
|
|
Phrase
|
2000
|
ISBN
2-267-01561-7
|
|
Poetique de l'histoire
|
2002
|
ISBN
2-7186-0578-2
|
|
Heidegger: la politique du poeme
|
2002
|
ISBN
2-7186-0593-6
|
Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry
|
2007
|
ISBN
0-252-03153-9
|
trans. Jeff Fort
|
Agonie terminee, agonie interminable
|
2004
|
ISBN
2-7186-0626-6
|
|
Le chant des muses: Petite conference sur la musique
|
2005
|
ISBN
2-227-47528-5
|
|
L’≪allegorie≫: Suivi de Un commencement
|
2006
|
ISBN
2-7186-0724-6
|
|
Preface a la disparition
|
2009
|
ISBN
2-267-02033-5
|
|
Ecrits Sur l'Art
|
2009
|
ISBN
2-84066-282-5
|
|
* 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
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
On the influence of Granel, cf.,
Audio recording of Lacoue-Labarthe discussing Granel
[
permanent dead link
]
.
- ^
The performance was attended by, among others,
Sarah Kofman
, who wrote a review in response. Cf., Sarah Kofman, "L'espace de la cesure,"
Critique
34/379 (December 1978), pp. 1143?50; Tina Chanter, "Eating Words: Antigone as Kofman's Proper Name," in
Penelope Deutscher
& Kelly Oliver (eds.),
Enigmas: Essays on Sarah Kofman
(Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1999), pp. 189?202; and Andrew Bush, "Maria Zambrano and the Survival of Antigone,"
diacritics
34 (3?4) (2004): 90?111.
- ^
Website about Michel Deutsch
Archived
2008-06-20 at the
Wayback Machine
.
- ^
Actor's Metamorphosis Into Oedipus the Tyrant
.
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