Simone Weil's Apologetic Use of Literature: Her Christological Interpretation of Classic Greek Texts (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs) PDF
Preview Simone Weil's Apologetic Use of Literature: Her Christological Interpretation of Classic Greek Texts (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)
SIMONE WEIL’S APOLOGETIC USE OF LITERATURE OXFORD MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE MONOGRAPHS EditorialCommittee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Simone Weil’s Apologetic Use of Literature Her Christological Interpretations of Ancient Greek Texts MARIE CABAUD MEANEY 1 1 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork MarieCabaudMeaney2007 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2007 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbyLaserwordsPrivateLimited,Chennai,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN978–0–19–921245–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Tomyparents,especiallytomyfather,JacquesCabaud,who inspiredmewithhisloveforSimoneWeil This page intentionally left blank Preface ThisbookaimstoaddressanimportantaspectofSimoneWeil’sthought that has not been covered so far, namely her original interpretations of ancient Greek texts. Though her article ‘L’Iliade ou le poe`me de la force’ishighlyregardedamongclassicists,herinterpretationsofGreek tragedyarehardlyknown.Ontheonehand,thisisduetothefactthat they are mostly fragmentary, consisting of notes taken for talks and in viewofabookshewishedtowritetogetherwiththeDominicanpriest, Father Perrin. On the other hand, the reason for this lacuna may lie with the Christological nature of her readings. Though her article on theIliad endswithacomparisonoftheepictotheGospel,itsfocuson Christianityisnotobvioussincearedeemerfigureispreciselymissingin theHomerictext.This,inWeil’seyes,isnotthecaseintheSophoclean Antigone and Electra, or in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. Antigone becomesaChrist-figure,dyingoutofafollyoflove,andundergoinga Passioninwhichshefeelsforsakenbygodsandmen.Electrastandsfor someone going through a dark night of the soul, but not abandoning hope and thus being rewarded with a mystical experience, symbolized bytherevelationofOrestestohissister.Prometheus,ontheotherhand, isnotreallyinconflictwithZeus,butisexperiencingthederelictionof Christ on the cross. For Weil, these tragedies as well as Homer’s epic revealthepresenceofthesupernaturalintheworld,beitintheformof the moral law, of a supernatural perspective overruling all ideology, or ofGod’spresenceinsufferingandinmysticalencounters. Sincefirst readingWeil, I havebeen intriguedbyher Christological and imaginative approach to ancient Greek literature. This compelled me to analyse her hermeneutics, explore her motivations, and see whether her misreadings could also contribute something to the field of Classics. Her approach made sense once I came to realize that her intentionswere apologetic, at least in part. If the agnostic intellectuals of her day came to see that these texts which they cherish so much could only be fully understood in the light of Christ, then they might bemoreopentoChristianity.Ontheotherhand,Weilthoughtthatif Catholicscametothesameconclusion,thentheywouldhavetoadmit that Catholicism is much more universal than generally accepted and that Christianity had existed before the incarnation of Christ. Thus, viii Preface they too would be led to display greater openness and dialogue. In paradigmaticformtheGreekclassicswouldconveytobothgroupsthe existenceofthesupernatural. Though proficient in Latin and Greek Weil did not care to consult or use the classical scholarship of her day, at least not in depth. She preferredtoreadthetextsdirectlyandclosely—somethingshehadbeen trainedtodobyherfamousteacher,thephilosopherAlain.Therefore,I chosetodisregardingreatpartthesecondaryliteratureofhertime,and instead focus on what her interpretations could contribute to modern scholarship.Inconsequence,Icomparedherreadingstothoseofmodern classicists, situating her approach and pointing out the ways in which theyweresometimesextravagantandsometimesinsightful. Weilisa‘strong’reader,castingthesefamiliartextsintonewshapes. Herthought,herpersonality,andhermannerofexpressingherselfhave the power to attract, but also the tendency to repel. No matter what our reactions to Weil are, her interpretations startle and will make us think about these classics in new ways. This book attempts to analyse andexplainherapproach,andperhapsmakeitcompelling.ThusIstart in Ch. 1 with an investigation of Weil’s love for and perspective on ancientGreektextsbeforelooking,inCh.2atherideasonapologetics andatherasanapologist,priortocomparinghertootherapologistsin Ch. 3. Only then do I give a close reading of Weil’s interpretationsof Antigone,Iliad,PrometheusBound,andElectrainChs.4–7.Inorderto do this I oftenhad to piece togetherher fragmentary readings of these texts and draw on a whole number of her writingsto explain in depth someoftheconceptssheused. BydefinitionanybookonWeilwillhavetobeinterdisciplinary.Weil herself moved seamlessly between the fields of philosophy, literature, theology, Classics, history, politics, and mathematics. Therefore this bookshouldbeofinteresttospecialistsandamateursindifferentfields: obviously to Weil-specialists, but also to classicists, theologians, and French linguists, as well as to the wider audience of Weil-lovers or to those who are encountering her for the first time. Though it cannot pretend to give a complete overview of Weil’s thought, it offers an important key to many of its aspects since a significant number of her centralideasarecontainedinherinterpretations.Finally,herexistential readings of Greek texts reveal something of her own personality, of her ideals and her approach to all matters intellectual:her intransigent search for the truth, her desire to put it into practice immediately no matter what the consequences are, and her desire to share with others Preface ix this treasure that she felt had been given her. These attitudes are not justreflectedinherinterpretationsbutareembodiedbytheveryfigures sheinterpretswithsuch admiration—thusofferingus a furtherkey to Weil. Tomakethebookaccessibletoawideraudience,Englishtranslations oftheFrenchquoteshavebeenincluded.Whennopublishedtranslation existedorwhenIdisagreedwithit,Iprovidedthetranslationmyself.In order to avoid the text becoming too convoluted, however, I chose to givethereferencesonlytotheFrencheditionsofWeil’s texts—except inthecaseofaquotation,whenIgivethereferencestotheeditionsin bothlanguages.AtthebeginningofChs.4–7inwhichIanalyseWeil’s interpretationsofindividualGreektexts,Istartoffwithanoverviewof thepassagesWeilquotesandthehistoryofherinterestinthetragedyor epic. This may be of greater interest to the Weil-specialist or classicist thantoothersandcaneasilybeskippedbythereader.Furthermore,for those who simply want learn about Weil’s interpretation of a specific Greek text these chapters can be read separately without the need to perusethefirstthreechapters. M.C.M
Description:The list of books you might like
