Essai d’une cartographie de la notion d’ « événement » dans la phénoménologie française contemporaine (original) (raw)

Cet article se présente comme une contribution à l’historiographie de la phénoménologie contemporaine. Il s’agit en effet d’analyser les transformations qu’a subies la notion d’« événement » (et ses différents présupposés) pour devenir non seulement un concept proprement phénoménologique, mais également le pivot autour duquel s’est défini un usage contemporain inédit de la phénoménologie, celui de la « phénoménologie française ». De ce point de vue, l’article prend position à l’égard de Neue Phänomenologie in Frankreich, qui retrace le « tournant événementiel » de la phénoménologie française exclusivement dans la métabolisation du concept d’Ereignis de Heidegger ; au contraire, on tente de souligner l’importance d’autres influences – heideggeriennes et non-heideggeriennes. Ainsi, on montre qu’à l’intérieur du champ phénoménologique se mêlent en réalité l’influence de la phénoménologie heideggerienne de l’inapparent, la matrice bergsonienne et les influences structuralistes et post-structuralistes. On analyse ensuite les cas des auteurs de tradition française qui s’intéressent à la phénoménologie et qui exploitent le thème de l’événement (Levinas, Derrida, Marion, Romano). Cela permet finalement de proposer une reconstruction textuelle et une cartographie de l’utilisation de la notion et du thème d’« événement » dans la phénoménologie française contemporaine. The present paper aims at contributing to the historiography of contemporary phenomenology: the main focus being the vicissitudes of the notion of “event” in contemporary French phenomenology. On the one hand, we show how the notion of “event” has to undergo some kind of transformation in order to adapt, and thus play a strategic role in a phenomenological context; on the other hand, I show to what extent phenomenology itself is affected by this introduction of the notion of event. In order to do so, the paper starts off with an analysis of the Neue Phänomenologie in Frankreich, whose claim is that the origin of such phenomenological transformations has its roots back in the assimilation of the Heideggerian concept of Ereignis. The present paper strives to provide an alternative thesis: we advance the claim that, perhaps, what is called “event” in contemporary phenomenology is closer to Geschehen than Ereignis. Moreover, a sharp distinction is made between Heidegger’s ontological project (Sein as no-thing, hence never present) from what we can call the “need” of phenomenology, i.e., the need for a direct access to Sein (which characterizes the “phenomenology of the inapparent”). The latter distinction explains why so many authors reject the Heideggerian ontological implications while still agreeing with his critical perspective on Husserl’s phenomenology, and de facto accepting the “phenomenology of the inapparent”. I also try to take into account other influences in order to understand the French phenomenological way, and its transformations, as a sort of dynamics immanent to the history of French philosophy, rather than as something determined by external factors. In this sense, I take the relation between the Bergsonian, the Structuralist, and Post-Structuralist influences, as well as the French reception of Heidegger’s “phenomenology of the inapparent”, to be a crucial pattern. In conclusion, I try to also offer an analysis of some specific authors, such as E. Levinas, J. Derrida, J.-L. Marion and C. Romano. These investigations lead us to outline a cartography of the different applications of the notion of “event” in contemporary French phenomenology, and its theoretical implications.