Silence as a modality of mystical experience in the work of Sylvie Germain
The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience 2021 DOI: 10.5817/cz.muni.p210-9997-2021-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key points | Argues that silence in Sylvie Germain's work serves as both a manifestation of God's discreet appearance and a human act of humility, and is a necessary condition for mystical experience. |
Abstract
The article deals with the issue of silence in the thinking and work of the contemporary French author Sylvie Germain. The starting point for deliberation is the author’s essay Acte de silence (2011), in which silence is conceived both as a manifestation of God’s discreet appearance and as an act of humility and patience of man. The presence of silence seems to be a necessary condition for mystical experience. Silence understood in this way is the subject of the analysis in a selected passage from Germain’s novel L’Enfant Méduse (1991), which suggests some specific features of the author’s poetics of the transcendent, also present in her later novel work.