Perceval

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani often returns to the Perceval of the Story of the Grail, especially to two scenes. The first is his silence at the Fisher King's castle: raised as a little savage by his mother, far from knighthood, Perceval stands dazed before the king's suffering and does not ask the question that would have healed him12. A hermit links this silence to the fault of having abandoned his mother, who died of grief when he left3. The second is his contemplation of three drops of blood on the snow, in which he sees his beloved's cheeks; he spends hours there and strikes down the knights who challenge him, until Gawain arrives4. In 2022, he makes Perceval a figure of the dialectic of hesitation and decision: the one who shoots without hesitating becomes "absolute hesitation," not even knowing his own name5, and he compares him with Siegfried. He also discusses Wagner's Parsifal, who kills the swan and only becomes clear when he speaks of his mother6, as well as the passage from sight to vision.

1. 1#4.7 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:41:16
2. 2Dialectiques de l'hésitation et de la décision13 Nov 2022 · 21:12
3. 3Dialectiques de l'hésitation et de la décision13 Nov 2022 · 25:53
4. 4Dialectiques de l'hésitation et de la décision13 Nov 2022 · 1:00:49
5. 5L’hésitation fascinée par l’ouÏe et par la vue : Siegfried et Perceval12 Dec 2022 · 52:54
6. 6Sauver le sauveur ? La rédemption - fin du cycle ou son recommencement ?21 Apr 2024 · 1:19:10

Summary produced automatically from 36 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.