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sis. Following Freud, Lacan reminded us that the truth of love lies in ha–
tred. An ethics of the written word implies that one should become aware
of hatred, and psychoanalysis is also and perhaps foremost the analysis of
hatred.
BS:
In what way do you think one should bear witness to those ethical
components that are at the core of your novel and at the core of your
own discourse? Is this the
raison d'etre
of today's intellectual? How do you
envision the intellectual's intervention in the face of violence and the
banality of evil?
JK:
It
seems impossible to me to hold a discourse that ignores negativity.
We must free ourselves from the consensual ideology that surrounds us,
from the deceitful putting forward of a rallying discourse that is being
called for everywhere in order to get rid of "problems." Up against such a
general condition, which I recently described as a "national depressive
syndrome," I don't believe it is appropriate to seek a reassuring discourse
that would take over from the "positive" discourse we have known,
which was Marxism. I should like to pursue this further in order to an–
swer your question. I believe it is more than ever necessary to examine
seriously, in opposition to moralizing, euphoric discourses, the theoretical
work that we earlier engaged in at
Tel Quel.
You spoke of this work in
your book,
Eloge du sujet.
Others have attempted to stigmatize that work
with such terms as "structuralism," "theoreticalism," or even
"antihumanism." Actually, it was a critical, not a nihilistic discourse, as
some tried to argue. It seems that people claimed to have been terrorized
by what we stated then, and I am ready to believe that. They were ter–
rorized less by technical language than by a critical, cleansing, undermin–
ing will that in truth they recognized. How does one dispose of such de–
mystifYing technique? By embracing the world created by the media or
the empty discourse of hope. I feel that it is harmful, even criminal, to
keep illusions going, for this amounts to encouraging new pitfalls. One
mustn't be afraid to disappoint, if that is the road to knowledge and truth,
in the face of the "national depressive syndrome" I spoke of The analytic,
relentless position that I uphold is preferable to the manic rehabilitation of
depression under the guise, for instance, of nationalistic fundamentalism
or the soporific television rating games.
BS:
Doesn't that imply that an intellectual should be less cut off from
reality, less ensconced in a superb solitude?
JK:
Something like that. My "commitment," a very microscopic one, is
