Narrative Subject, Historic Subject: Shoah and La Place de l'Etoile

Abstract

A broken writes Reverdy, a real fact, but think and of my broken arm is not at all some other person thinks and knows of his broken arm, or of mine. As for those who have never had a broken arm, realized that they do not an arm is, any more than did before broke mine (Reverdy 1956: 32). There it is, a truism, of course: can tell my doctor where hurt; can even describe my pain with some degree of accuracy, but cannot make him feel it. My broken arm reminds me of my ineluctable singularity, my essential alienation. Furthermore, as long as abide by this essential singularity, escape my own thought, which can only operate from universals; also escape the grasp of others, of culture, of language, and of history. It is a question therefore of thought and knowledge, of I think and know as well as what another thinks and knows. More precisely, it is a question of separates my thought and my knowledge from my experience on the one hand, and, on the other, from the thought, knowledge, and experience of someone else. In other words, we are dealing with the universalization of my subjectivity through its communication. This in turn can only be achieved in and through lan-