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Rhythms: On the Work, Translation, and Psychoanalysis
Abraham, Nicolas
- GenresPhilosophyPsychology
169 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 16, 2020
What initially struck me in opening this work was how little it deals with psychoanalysis (besides the last, and shortest, of the essays collected herein), seeing as I know of Abraham from his work with Maria Torok on Freud's case study of the Wolf Man. It was thus a not unwelcome surprise to discover that the essays make up, though in an incomplete fashion, the basis for a phenomenology of poetic expression following (loosely) the methods of Husserl.
The first piece lays the groundworks for the phenomenological examination of poetic expression, which culminates in Abraham's claim that the poem is "pure signification" (43), which seeks only to express itself as poem. A pure poiesis, then, bringing forth no representation, but simply the attempt at expressing itself - at expression itself. It would thus be, as Rand and Torok remark in their retrospective essay which closes the volume, "infinite symbolization of itself" (150). The symbol, as symbolon, casts together into the mise en phrase these words which do not symbolize something else, something other, but rather the radical other of all language, which renders unto language its power, as demand, to speak to this other which ever eludes it, ineluctably.
The second piece in the volume focuses more on rhythm as it functions in consciousness, as the mode in which the noema is displaced into the background of experience, opening consciousness to examine its noetic role with less hindrance. For rhythm entails not a mechanical and automatous repetition, but an action or active engagement of consciousness in its freedom, playing open its temporal horizon through the interplay of expectation and surprise.
Finally, the third piece, which is the chronologically latest of the three, deals explicitly with psychoanalysis as a methodology for thinking an aesthetics of life. Abraham provides an innovative reading of a poem by Goethe and the opening stanza of Poe's "The Raven," by putting to work the rhythmical principles of analysis that he had laid out years before in the preceding two essays.
While much less psychoanalytically oriented than his later writings with Torok, Abraham here presents an unexpected twist on phenomenology, engaging language in a manner otherwise than Husserl in his Logical Investigations, and otherwise than Heidegger thinks of poetry in his later writings. Those interested in phenomenology of language or in poetics will not be disappointed by the innovative thoughts expressed in this short collection of essays.
The first piece lays the groundworks for the phenomenological examination of poetic expression, which culminates in Abraham's claim that the poem is "pure signification" (43), which seeks only to express itself as poem. A pure poiesis, then, bringing forth no representation, but simply the attempt at expressing itself - at expression itself. It would thus be, as Rand and Torok remark in their retrospective essay which closes the volume, "infinite symbolization of itself" (150). The symbol, as symbolon, casts together into the mise en phrase these words which do not symbolize something else, something other, but rather the radical other of all language, which renders unto language its power, as demand, to speak to this other which ever eludes it, ineluctably.
The second piece in the volume focuses more on rhythm as it functions in consciousness, as the mode in which the noema is displaced into the background of experience, opening consciousness to examine its noetic role with less hindrance. For rhythm entails not a mechanical and automatous repetition, but an action or active engagement of consciousness in its freedom, playing open its temporal horizon through the interplay of expectation and surprise.
Finally, the third piece, which is the chronologically latest of the three, deals explicitly with psychoanalysis as a methodology for thinking an aesthetics of life. Abraham provides an innovative reading of a poem by Goethe and the opening stanza of Poe's "The Raven," by putting to work the rhythmical principles of analysis that he had laid out years before in the preceding two essays.
While much less psychoanalytically oriented than his later writings with Torok, Abraham here presents an unexpected twist on phenomenology, engaging language in a manner otherwise than Husserl in his Logical Investigations, and otherwise than Heidegger thinks of poetry in his later writings. Those interested in phenomenology of language or in poetics will not be disappointed by the innovative thoughts expressed in this short collection of essays.
January 20, 2014
Abraham is clear, methodical, and brilliant in a remote way. The three essays here (as well as a disjointed note by Maria Torok and Nicholas Rand) present the Hungarian psychologist's late thought on poetics and rhythm and – if you're attracted by the postFreudian psychoanalytic take on kineasthetic rhythms and psycholinguistic approaches to prose – you should try to find your library's copy, because there's plenty of great critical prose here unpacking the idea of a poetic and rhythmic consciousness. He's also occasionally brilliant and very charismatic, which is strange to say, but moments such as his recollections of a train ride provide unexpected glimpses into a humanity otherwise obscured by discussions of dactylic feet and the object-consciousness. And then there's touches I find absolutely magical, such as this one: "It remains to be seen whether this strictly perceptual layer is sufficient unto itself, whether it harbors, in an autonomous fashion, some criterion of the beautiful." That's a little bit of savory critical joy right there.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews