Isis

Summary

Dominique Pagani mainly discusses Isis in connection with Nerval. In Sylvie, he points to the eternally young goddess who regenerates material man and to the bouquet of roses of "the beautiful Isis"1. In Aurélia, he presents her as a mother goddess older than the Virgin, who holds an immense place in the text2. He often returns to the same gesture: Isis gathers from the Nile the fragments of Osiris, dismembered by his brother, and tries to put him back together. He sees in her the figure of the mother, "the one who carries," both mother and lover, and a prefiguration of the mater dolorosa34. He counts her among the figures of maternal incarnation. Speaking of the Corsican Neolithic, he adds that Isis is the fertilized water of the Nile and that popular intuition fused her cult with the Christian tradition. In 2022, he makes this gathering of Osiris's limbs an image of art, which brings the spirit back to itself5.

1. 1Introduction to the upcoming workshops23 Mar 2020 · 1:17:00
2. 2#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:26:22
3. 3#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:30:48
4. 4#4.8 Angélique (by Nerval)16 May 2018 · 5:13
5. 5#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 34:49

Summary produced automatically from 13 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.