Petite topologie du temps à l’usage de la critique : l’exemple de « Paysages avec figures absentes » de Philippe Jaccottet

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate that, far from being an absolute given of human experience, the linearity of time is just one conceptual monster among others, which literature can easily escape when it fully inhabits the spatial world, as experienced and defined through the senses. Inspired by the works of phenomenologist David Abram, whose “topology of time” is articulated around a structural isomorphism between our conception of time and our perception of it, the author will show how this hypothesis can be witnessed in literature and that consequently, the “topology of time” can provide literary criticism with a surprisingly flexible yet precise tool. After presenting the outline of his reading grid, the author will apply its principles to the analysis of “Paysages avec figures absentes,” the first section of the eponymous work by Philippe Jaccottet, and describe how investing the landscape as perceived by the senses allows the poet to install a conception of temporality where the articulation of past, present, and future completely disregards the supposed linearity of time's arrow.

Keywords:

• Space
• Time
• Topology
• Poetry
• Philippe Jaccottet
• David Abram

Notes

1. « The Earthly Topology of Time », selon l’expression utilisée par l’auteur (Abram 206).

2. Je me permets de noter au passage le titre très significatif d’un autre recueil de Philippe Jaccottet, À la lumière d’hiver, publié en 1977.

3. « Se tourner vers cela, ce devrait être appréhender l’immémoriale haleine divine (en dehors de toute référence à une morale ou à une religion) » (Jaccottet 31).