On Reading Maupassant's Le Horla Problematologically

Abstract

My intention in this article is to interpret Guy de Maupassant's Le Horla through the prism of problematology. I do so because I would like to show how and why the thought of Michel Meyer urgently matters to literary criticism, how and why problematology could possibly offer a way out of the current impasse in which criticism vacillates between hermeneutical indeterminacy and ideological over-determinacy, when it is not simply the glib performance of juxtaposing various parallel fragments woven together with a vague argument. Since Meyer has himself written extensively about the application of problematology to literary analysis and the place of problematology vis-a-vis hermeneutics, recep tion theory, and deconstruction, it seems to me futile to simply paraphrase his writings. Yet, I am aware that this article may be read in itself as perhaps a first step toward further readings in problematology. I will therefore first take the liberty of rapidly foreshadowing the concepts gleaned from Meyer's problema tology which are essential to my own reading of Le Horla.