Sur l’image qui manque à nos jours, Pascal Quignard et l’imaginaire de l’absence

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the role of the image in Quignard’s writing. Image is always present in his works, either directly, with the use of images taken from ancient art, or indirectly, thanks to the images that arise from his use of certain metaphors and expressions. In particular, here we take into consideration his Sur l’image qui manque à nos jours, in order to show how his discourse on the image takes the shape of a philosophical speculation on the missing images in our life. Indeed, for Quignard, we always live with the presence of the missing images, that is all we cannot see but we can imagine, for instance that of our conception. Moreover, the author analyses in this work four ancient images and four ancient texts. In so doing he confirms – even if partially – the Horatian formula ut pictura poesis, i.e. the link between these two forms of art. For him, the writing has the purpose of explaining the sense and the discourse that images represent. His way to present this to the readers is original and it does not belong to any other literary or artistic tradition of the past.