Simone Weil and the Limits of Language
Publication Type |
Book Chapter |
Year of Publication |
1996 |
Author |
|
Editor |
Dunaway, John M. Springsted, Eric O. |
Book |
The Beauty That Saves: Essays on Aesthetics and Language in Simone Weil |
Pages |
39-54 |
Publisher |
Mercer University Press |
Place Published |
Macon, Georgia |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
affliction (malheur) |
Annotation |
Drawing mainly on Weil’s Lectures on Philosophy, as well as her poem “Prométhée”, Little outlines Weil’s reflections on language noting particularly her thoughts on the relationship of language to time, action, and order. She then turns to Weils’ essays“ The Power of Words” and “Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression” as well as her writing in The Need for Roots, all of which, Little argues, concern themselves with the misuse of language to deceive or be used for ‘illegitimate ends’. Little then identifies “three levels in the way Weil approaches language’: discursive thought, the domain of contradiction and poetry where language is pushed to its limit, and the third, an emptiness or silencing of thought where one ‘waits’ upon God (p. 44). She begins her explication of these levels with an in-depth discussion of the importance and use of contradiction including the suffering it can bring. Both contradiction and art, especially poetry, can point the way to the third level. Little offering a number of examples where Weil felt this shift had occurred. |