Delphine Grass

The Democratic Languages of Exile: Reading Eugene Jolas and Yvan Goll's American Poetry with Jacques Derrida and Hannah Arendt

Taking from departure Jacques Derrida and Hannah Arendts divergent points of view on the cultural role of the mother tongue in totalitarian and democratic contexts, this essay investigates the writings of two poets, Yvan Goll and Eugene Jolas, who both wrote poetry in English during their exiles in New York during the Second World War. The essay analyses how issues of belonging and citizenship are approached in their works through the prism of multilingualism for Jolas, and by challenging mono-referentiality in language and proper names in Yvan Golls Kabbalistic poetry. The essay investigates how both poets and both thinkers tried to reimagine democracy through the prism of multilingualism or mother-tongue expression in their works.

The Disappearing Subject: Language, transparency, and modern architecture in the works of Michel Houellebecq

L’enjeu technologique majeur du vingt-et-unième siècle sera, est déjà l’interconnexion de l’ensemble des humains en un réseau unique de transmission d’information au sens large; on peut raisonnablement prévoir à l’horizon 2050 l’unification des réseaux continentaux en un système mondial global de transmission instantanée de l’information qui entraı̂nera d’une part la disparition des formes classiques de transmission culturelle . . . Dans le même temps, les relations humaines de proximité (famille, amis) seront bien sûr fortement disqualifiés. (62)