Legend of the Grail

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani approaches the Grail legend through Chrétien de Troyes, the first to use the word Grail, whose origin remains unknown. He sees Perceval as a figure caught between hesitation and decision1. He focuses on Perceval's muteness. At the Fisher King's castle, Perceval does not ask the question that would have healed the king. He stands mute before three drops of blood on the snow, then leaves the court after the messenger's reproaches. He links this choked throat to Baudelaire's "La Cloche fêlée" and to Kafka's The Castle, as part of a reflection on the passage from animal to human1. Answering a question from the audience, he connects this silence to the man from the country in Kafka's "Before the Law", who asks his question too late2. With Wagner's Parsifal, he considers the separation of the Grail and the spear. The Grail is substance, the maternal element that gathers the blood; the spear is the concept, which grasps and wounds. With Hegel, he holds that the hand that inflicts the wound is also the one that heals it3.

1. 1LES APORIES DE L’ANTHROPOLOGIE23 Nov 2022
2. 2Racines ou migration ? De la rêverie analytique à l'actualité, de Hölderlin à la guerre17 Feb 2023
3. 3De la fidélité à la grâce - De la substance au Sujet30 May 2024

Introduction produced automatically from the 3 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.