Unsettling Montaigne : poetics, ethics and affect in the Essais and other writings

308 Pages·2014·1.67 MB·English

by  Guild

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Gallica
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Montaigne’s Essais (1580–1592) are one of the most
remarkable works of the European Renaissance. The L
Essais’ innovative open-mindedness is at odds with the I
dogmatism and intolerance of their times, the decades N
of civil and religious wars in France, and their tolerant
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and searching human questions and ethics of difference
remain compelling for twenty-first century readers.
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But the sceptical open-endedness that vitalizes this
writing is also often troubled and troubling: personal losses
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and the collapse of cultural ideals moved Montaigne to
write, and their attendant anxieties are not resolved into N
tranquil reflection.
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Unsettling Montaigne reassesses Montaigne’s scepticism.
Informed by psychoanalytic and related theory, its close A UNSETTLING MONTAIGNE
attention to Montaigne’s complex uses of metaphor
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illuminates the psychic economy of his scepticism and G
tolerance and their poetics, while new readings of his
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Essais and other texts reveal the significance of disquieting
questions, thought and affect for the ethos his writing
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fosters. The analysis deals with figures such as cannibals
and cannibalism, hunger, shaking, tickling, place, the
brother, and haunting in Montaigne’s exploration of
concepts which tested his understanding and self- E
understanding. The volume also demonstrates how L
figuration supports openness to difference for both I
writer and readers, and is fundamental to this writing’s Z
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aesthetic, psychic and ethical creativity.
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ELIZABETH GUILD lectures in French at the University E
of Cambridge, and is a Fellow of Robinson College. T
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Front cover: Cannibals Mourning their Dead, from Jean de Léry, Histoire d’un

voyage faict en la terre du Bresil (La Rochelle, 1578). By kind permission of the G
Master, Fellows and Scholars of Clare College, Cambridge.
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an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ELIZABETH GUILD
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
Gallica
Volume 34
Unsettling Montaigne
Gallica
issn 1749–091X
general editor: sarah Kay
Gallica aims to provide a forum for the best current work in medieval and Renais-
sance French studies. literary studies are particularly welcome and preference is
given to works written in english, although publication in French is not excluded.
Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editor, or to the
publisher, at the addresses given below; all submissions receive prompt and informed
consideration.
Professor sarah Kay, Department of French, new York University, 13–19 Univer-
sity Place, 6th floor, New York, NY 10003, USA
the editorial Director, gallica, Boydell & Brewer ltd., Po Box 9, Woodbridge,
suffolk iP12 3DF, UK
Previously published volumes in this series
are listed at the end of this book.
Unsettling Montaigne
PoetiCs, etHiCs anD aFFeCt
in tHe ESSAIS anD otHeR WRitings
elizaBetH gUilD
D. s. BReWeR
© elizabeth guild 2014
All Rights Reserved. except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Elizabeth Guild to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988
First published 2014
D. s. Brewer, Cambridge
isBn 978–1–84384–371–9
D. s. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer ltd
Po Box 9, Woodbridge, suffolk iP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer inc.
668 Mt Hope avenue, Rochester, nY 14620–2731, Usa
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
a catalogue record for this book is available
from the British library
the publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of
URls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate
this publication is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
acknowledgements vii
author’s note viii
abbreviations of Journal titles ix
Chronology x
introduction 1
1 the Possibility of their Being otherwise 11
2 ‘Je ne vois le tout de rien’: the Cannibal and the Place of Knowledge 40
3 Cannibal, Beloved: on eating What is good … 73
4 Confessions: the Desire for Knowledge, the Passion for ignorance 119
5 tickling, shaking, shitting 152
6 the Place of the Brother 203
7 Uncertain Futures 242
Bibliography 275
index 285

aCKnoWleDgeMents
this book owes much to the invigorating and generous colleagues with whom
i have had the great pleasure of interacting. at the University of Cambridge i
have gained hugely from working with such outstanding early modernists as
Philip Ford, gillian Jondorf and neil Kenny, and with colleagues, past and
present, who are interested in psychoanalysis. i am also grateful to all the won-
derful students i have taught over the years who have kept renewing my interest
in Montaigne. in Robinson College the intellectual and practical support and
warmth of colleagues, notably Deborah thom and Mary stewart, have been
invaluable. Many of those with whom I have trained and worked in the field
of psychoanalysis have creatively challenged and extended my thinking, and i
have learned a great deal from them. i should particularly like to thank Chris
oakley, for enlivening and bracing support, and sarah greaves, for understand-
ing. great thanks also to Hilary thomas, for extraordinary friendship and hos-
pitality. My two greatest debts are to simon gaunt, for intellectual stimulation,
matchless friendship and play, and to gyles glover, who knows better than
anyone what it has taken.
i am very grateful to Robinson College for granting me the study leave that
made it possible to embark on this book. i should also like to thank sarah Kay
as series editor, enabling as ever, and Boydell & Brewer’s reader, from whose
comments this book greatly benefited. A last word of thanks goes to Simon
gaunt and neil Kenny for very thoughtful comments on early drafts.
Cambridge and Udaipur,
July 2013
aUtHoR’s note
all references to Montaigne’s Essais, unless otherwise stated, are to the Villey-
saulnier edition (Paris, 2004), and all translations of Montaigne, unless other-
wise stated, are my own. Much of the argument of this book works with my
interpretation of Montaigne’s language, and therefore my own translations seem
to me to best convey that understanding. in the bibliography i have listed two
published english translations of Montaigne, for readers who wish to explore
further my quotations from the text.
occasionally the letters (a), (B) and (C) occur in quotations from the Essais.
these letters indicate three different editions of the text: (a) the text of 1580;
(B) the text of 1588; and (C) that of 1592, on which Montaigne was working
at the time of his death. (B) and/or (C) therefore indicate Montaigne’s additions
or changes to the text of an earlier edition.
aBBReViations oF JoURnal titles
BHR Bibliothèque d’humanisme et Renaissance
BSAM Bulletin de la société des amis de Montaigne
MLN Modern Language Notes
PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
RHLF Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France