Nocturne

Summary

Dominique Pagani thinks of the nocturnal in opposition to the diurnal. The nocturnal world brings together dream, imagination, intoxication and the irrational, set against the clarity of reason1. In the same session, night is non-knowledge, while day, light and the determinate concept belong to knowledge2. Speaking about Debussy, he notes that sounds and scents are savoured with eyes closed. They are more nocturnal than colours and forms and stand opposed to the world of Apollo. He also links night to the mind: memory and image belong to the "night of the mind", and man is himself this night, a nothingness understood as the act of negating3. Finally, he gives the nocturnal the status of waiting. Night is the time of "in the meantime", before the great day4. In Hölderlin, it keeps the memory of what has been taken from us. He specifies, however, that in this poet, unlike in Novalis, night is rarely a primary divinity56.

1. 1#5 Harnessed to confinitude18 Apr 2020 · 44:25
2. 2#5 Harnessed to confinitude18 Apr 2020 · 1:05:14
3. 3#9 Return to the logics of the subject30 May 2020 · 51:05
4. 4#5 Harnessed to confinitude18 Apr 2020 · 1:28:57
5. 5Hölderlin, poetry and politics19 Mar 2022 · 23:39
6. 6Hölderlin, poetry and politics19 Mar 2022 · 58:25

Summary produced automatically from 7 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.