Mignon

Figures and characters

Appears in 12 videos · 22 passages, 7 of them in depth.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani devotes a whole session of his analytical reveries to Mignon, Goethe's creature: "Mignon ou le chant du silence" ("Mignon, or the Song of Silence"). There he stresses everything about her that remains undetermined: we do not simply know whether she is a girl, she is dressed as a boy and stands between two sexes and two ages. She comes from travelling people and is the child of incest; she twitters a vague German rather than speaking it. He sees her as a pre-social being whose socialisation is impossible1. By gathering all these indeterminacies, she embodies the spirit of music; she dies of grief when Wilhelm moves away2. He recalls that Wagner saw in her music that is made to suffer3. He links her to the Rhinemaidens, to the little girls of Senlis in Nerval, whom he calls "Angélique's Mignon", and even to the nursery rhyme of Kubrick's robot4. He states that his commentary grew out of a political concern. In 2024 he makes her the figure of an identity that cannot be found and is always fleeting, the opposite of becoming set in one's ways5.

Summary produced automatically from 22 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

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Series · 7 Apr 2021#1 Mignon, or the song of silence

25:01A creature of Goethe's about whom one does not simply know whether she is a young girl.
31:09A sexless being dressed as a boy, who warbles a vague German, a presocial character for whom socialization is impossible.
37:51Coming from traveling people, an incestuous offspring, between two sexes and two ages; she dances then sings of the land of lemon trees.
48:19She embodies the spirit of music by gathering together every indetermination; she dies of grief when Wilhelm goes away.

Series · 25 Mar 2021#18 What is musical in music

21:42Tutelary genius misunderstood by Wilhelm, dead of grief: for Wagner, the embodiment of music that is made to suffer.
38:25A being of uncertain sex, pre-social, who chirps, whose song is pleading and full of promises.

Cycle 12 · 4 Jan 2024I am not who you think I am: the elusive identity

9:37A character with an identity that cannot be found: sex, language, age, origin and dwelling all undetermined; pre-social, she dies of love.
1:02:03A figure of identity that is always fugitive, the opposite of hardening.

Cycle 9.2 · 14 Apr 2021#9.19 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation (part 2)

16:45Like the Rhinemaidens, she is between childhood and maturity; her case already showed the play of genders.
1:52:00Allusion to Mignon in the final lines of Promenades et souvenirs.