Calypso

Summary

Dominique Pagani mentions Calypso only in the context of the Odyssey, as one of Ulysses' stops on the way home1. He never studies her for her own sake: she appears in a series of episodes that he groups together. In the prelude to a session on Lacan's text "Function and Field of Speech and Language," he counts her among Ulysses' peaceful stopovers that end badly2. In the 2020 interview introducing the future workshops, he places her among the stages where Ulysses avoids carnage3. There he also treats her episode as an image of history put in parentheses4. In 2021, in a session on Nerval and Baudelaire, he mentions her in connection with the idylls Ulysses has at each stage, with Circe and Nausicaa5. Across these passages, Calypso thus serves as a figure of suspension: peace and idyll interrupt war and history for a time, but cannot last.

1. 1#6 Harnessed to confinitude26 Apr 2020 · 1:36:24
2. 2#6.1 Prelude: Lacan, “Function and field of speech and language”10 Nov 2019 · 1:16:20
3. 3Introduction to the upcoming workshops23 Mar 2020 · 45:58
4. 4Introduction to the upcoming workshops23 Mar 2020 · 1:37:40
5. 5#9.24 “Ruled like music paper!” Nerval, Baudelaire (part 2)30 Jun 2021 · 1:23:07

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.