Monsieur Jourdain

Summary

Dominique Pagani uses Monsieur Jourdain mainly through the phrase "speaking prose without knowing it", which he often takes up in order to reverse it: we, for our part, make poetry without knowing it, since we make poetry as soon as we speak123. He links this reversal to metaphor, which is present in ordinary language without speakers noticing4, and also to myth and Greek music5. He also notes the naivety with which the character discovers the separation between prose and verse: for him, whatever is not prose is verse, and the genres remain separate67. He also applies the phrase polemically to other groups: anthropologists are said to be Marxists without knowing it8, and ecologists Malthusians without knowing it9. Lastly, he mentions a Planchon production in which Jourdain comes on stage carrying his shopping baskets10.

1. 1Mythology and truth8 Aug 2015 · 21:50
2. 2#2.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Mar 2016 · 1:11:33
3. 3“Red-browns”, “decolonial”: should we use the dominant language?31 Mar 2021 · 32:54
4. 4M for Music27 Dec 2014 · 11:37
5. 5#7 The Greeks, myth and music17 Dec 2020 · 29:24
6. 6At the bistro (part 1)18 Jun 2016 · 43:24
7. 7#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)2 Nov 2018 · 40:21
8. 8H for Hegel22 Dec 2014 · 9:33
9. 9Calves and Things (3): the dictatorship of the bobotariat6 Oct 2020 · 16:51
10. 10Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?23 May 2026 · 1:46:34

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