Michel Serres or the turbulence of interpretation

"L'espace est semaphore" (Serres, 1987b: 152)

Abstract

Michel Serres' conception of the rapports between science and literature is exerting a decisive influence on French philosophy and literary criticism. Serres, by drawing on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, and through his attentive reading of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, addresses the question that French modern thought has left fallow: is there a viewpoint that, from within the precinct of epistemology, allows for an investigation of literature and aesthetics without reducing the latter to the function of a simple mirror­image? Is there a way of entering into literature and language which leads back to scientific hypotheses? Is there a passage between scientific constructions and literary discourse? In other words is there a true interference between "truth" and "fiction"? This presentation of an author whose works are still largely unknown to the Anglophone theorists of literature in South Africa aims at clarifying some points of Michel Serres' approach and at proposing an entrance into what may be called a Lucretian poetics.

Opsomming
Michel Serres se opvatting oor die verbande tussen wetenskap en letterkunde oefen op die Franse filosofie en literere kritiek 'n beslissende invloed uit. Deels as die erfgenaam van Merleau-Ponty se fenomenologie, deels as die oplettende leser van Gilles Deleuze en Jacques Derrida, rig Michel Serres hom op die vraag wat deur die moderne Franse denkrigting verwaarloos is: bestaan daar 'n sienswyse wat binne die veld van die episte­mologie 'n ondersoek van letterkunde en estetiek toelaat sonder om laasgenoemde te verlaag tot die funksie van 'n eenvoudige spieelbeeld? Bestaan daar 'n manier om toe te tree tot taal en letterkunde wat terugvoer tot wetenskaplike hipoteses? Is daar 'n deurgang tussen wetenskaplike konstruksies en literere redevoering? Met ander woorde bestaan daar 'n ware inmenging tussen "waarheid" en "fiksie"? Hierdie voorstelling van 'n skrywer wie se werke nog grotendeels onbekend is onder Engelssprekende letterkundige teoretici is gemik op die verheldering van sommige punte van Michel Serres se benadering en om toegang te verleen tot wat Lucretius se poetika genoem mag word.