On What Cannot Be Said: Apophatic Discourses in Philosophy, Religion, Literature, and the Arts. 2. Modern and Contemporary Transformations

489 Pages·2007·5.002 MB·English

by  William Franke

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    
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O N W H AT C A N N OT
B E S A I D
Apophatic Discourses
in Philosophy, Religion, Literature,
and the Arts
 .  
 
Edited with Theoretical and Critical Essays by
William Franke
University ofNotre Dame Press
Notre Dame,Indiana
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University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Copyright ©  by University of Notre Dame
Published in the United States of America
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On what cannot be said :apophatic discourses in philosophy,religion,literature,
and the arts :vol.: Modern and contemporary transformations / edited with
theoretical and critical essays by William Franke.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02885-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02883-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-07056-4 (web pdf)
.Mysticism. .Negative theology. .Speeches,addresses,etc. I.Franke,
William.
. 
—dc

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
ofthe Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity ofthe Council
on Library Resources.
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Ifthat be simply perfectest
Which can by no way be expresst
But negatives,my love is so.
To All,which all love,I say no.
—John Donne,“Negative Love”
Comme certaines musiques
Le poème fait chanter le silence,
Amène jusqu’à toucher
Un autre silence,
Encore plus silence.
—Eugène Guillevic,“Art poétique”
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CONTENTS
Preface:Apophasis as a Mode of Discourse 
Introduction:Modern and Contemporary Cycles of Apophasis 
F  F
. Hölderlin,Poems: “What Is God?,”“The Root of All Evil,”
“In My Boyhood Days,”“Exhortation,”“Brevity” 
. Schelling,“The Stupor ofReason,”from The Philosophy ofRevelation,
Berlin Introduction,Lecture VIII 
. Kierkegaard,Fear and Trembling,from Problema III 
. Dickinson,Poems ,,,,,,,,
,, 
. Hofmannsthal,The Lord Chandos Letter 
. Rilke,Duino Elegiesand ;Sonnets toOrpheusI.,, 
. Kafka,“On Parables”and “The Silence ofthe Sirens” 
. Benjamin,“The Task ofthe Translator” 
N A P
. Rosenzweig,from The Star ofRedemption:God and His Being or
Metaphysics;Esthetic First Principles;The Proper Name;
Liturgyand Gesture;The Star or the Eternal Truth 
. Wittgenstein,“A Lecture on Ethics”and Tractatus.– 
. Heidegger,“Words,”from On the Way to Language 
. Weil,“He Whom We Must Love Is Absent” 
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viii Contents
D, C, R N
. Malevich,“God Is Not Cast Down” 
. Schoenberg,Moses and Aaron,Act II,scenes –,
and Act III (fragment) 
. Adorno,“Music and Language:A Fragment,”from
Quasi una fantasia,and Negative Dialectics,III.iii. 
. Cage,“Lecture on Nothing,”from Silence 
. Jankélévitch,“Music and Silence,”from Music and the Ineffable 
. Beckett,from The Unnamable and “Texts for Nothing,”# 
. Steiner,“Silence and the Poet,”from Language and Silence 
. Philip,from Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey ofSilence 
T U O
. Bataille,fromInner Experience 
. Jabès,from El,or the Last Bookand The Book ofResemblances 
. Celan,selected poems:
“Below,”“An Eye,Open,”“With All My Thoughts,”
“Dumb Autumn Smells,”“Psalm,”“It Is No Longer,”“Mandorla,”
“Etched Away,”“Once,”“The Trumpet Part,”“The Poles” 
. Levinas,from Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence 
. Blanchot,“How to Discover the Obscure?”from
The InfiniteConversation 
. Derrida,from “Saufle nom (Post-Scriptum),”in On the Name 
. Marion,from God Without Being 
Permissions and Acknowledgments 
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PREFACE
Apophasis as a Mode of Discourse
The critical revolution of recent decades has changed how we approach the
reading and understanding oftexts.We have become increasingly sensitized to
the factthat weneed not—and cannot—always take discourse at its word.For
the word often,if not always,covers over more than it makes manifest,con-
ceals as the very condition by which it reveals.We have therefore been relearn-
ing to read for what words do not and perhaps cannot say.This entails attend-
ing especiallyto the ruptures and interruptions,to the silences and ellipses,
that displace discourse and break the circuits of sense.These gaps open dis-
course to the non-sense or surplus ofsense that it embodies and bears witness
to,even without being able to say it.The motivations ofdiscourse lie to a great
extent in what cannot be said,and to read for this unsayable that is betrayed
especially by impasses to saying is to recognize the moment of apophasis,of
silenceand unsaying,as constitutive ofsaying and its meanings.
“Apophasis”is the word used by Plato and Aristotle simply for a nega-
tive proposition or denial.But etymologically it suggests even stronger nega-
tivemeaningssuchas “away from speech”(apo:awayfrom;phasis:speechor
assertion) or unsaying. Among the Neoplatonists,“apophasis”takes on the
connotation ofa negation ofdiscourse simpliciter,for they concentrate on the
inability ofdiscourse per se to affirm anything whatsoever about ultimate re-
ality,for them “the One.”Ever since these ancient and endless speculations,the
intrinsic limits ofdiscourse,with its failure to attain its object and to articulate
the ultimately real,as well as the silence that follows as a consequence,have
been a perennial preoccupation,especially at certain junctures,ofthe Western
intellectual tradition.The great variety ofdiscourses—and inflections ofdis-
courses—that have resulted can be considered together as different expres-
sions ofan apophatic mode.
As a discursive mode,apophasis arises in the face ofwhat cannot be said.
Itbespeaks an experience ofbeing left speechless.There are no words for what
is experienced in this form ofexperience,no possibility ofa positive descrip-
tion ofit.One falls back on saying what it is not,since whatever canbe said is
notit.Bytheir very failure,however,conspicuously faltering and foundering

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