« Mais qui ose en affronter les suites ? » : Emil Cioran et les rapports entre la vanité, le suicide et l ’écriture
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Date
2018
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Abstract
Selon Emil Cioran, tout être humain est « imbu de la conviction que tout est vain ». Par contre, Cioran se demande tout de suite après avoir indiqué cette reconnaissance universelle de la vanité : « Mais qui ose en affronter les suites ? ». En quoi l’écrivain cioranien s’associe-t-il à cette humanité généralisée et en quoi est-ce qu’il s’en distingue ?
Quelle doit être notre réaction alors, face à la vanité de tout ? On pourrait être tenté de dire que la destruction, et surtout l’autodestruction, semble être la réaction la plus raisonnée. Bien que Cioran écrive de manière quasi-obsessionnelle sur le thème du suicide, il n’arrive pas à le recommander comme solution à la vanité justement parce que la vanité résiste à toute solution. L’écrivain se voit ainsi dans une position contradictoire, car à quoi sert-il de déclarer la vanité de tout si cette déclaration ne fait que participer à cette même vanité ? L’acte de publier des livres n’est pas, selon Cioran, plus efficace que le suicide en ce qui concerne l’atténuation de la vanité, mais l’écriture et la lecture en tant que création et destruction simultanées nous permettent d’oublier la vanité au moins assez pour continuer à vivre.
According to Emil Cioran, every human being is “full of the conviction that all is vain.” But Cioran wonder immediately after indicating that universal recognition of vanity: “But who dares to face the consequences?” How does the writing voice in Cioran associate with and distinguish himself from this generalized humanity? And what should our reaction to the vanity of all things be? We could be tempted to say that destruction, and self-destruction above all, seems to be the most reasonable reaction. Although Cioran writes in a near-obsessional way about suicide, he does not ultimately recommend it as a solution to vanity precisely because vanity resists all solutions. The writer is thus in a contradictory position: what would be the use of declaring the vanity of all things if that declaration only participates in that same vanity? The act of publishing books is not, according to Cioran, more effective than suicide as far as the attenuation of vanity is concerned, but reading and writing as simultaneous creation and destruction allow us to forget vanity at least enough to continue living.
According to Emil Cioran, every human being is “full of the conviction that all is vain.” But Cioran wonder immediately after indicating that universal recognition of vanity: “But who dares to face the consequences?” How does the writing voice in Cioran associate with and distinguish himself from this generalized humanity? And what should our reaction to the vanity of all things be? We could be tempted to say that destruction, and self-destruction above all, seems to be the most reasonable reaction. Although Cioran writes in a near-obsessional way about suicide, he does not ultimately recommend it as a solution to vanity precisely because vanity resists all solutions. The writer is thus in a contradictory position: what would be the use of declaring the vanity of all things if that declaration only participates in that same vanity? The act of publishing books is not, according to Cioran, more effective than suicide as far as the attenuation of vanity is concerned, but reading and writing as simultaneous creation and destruction allow us to forget vanity at least enough to continue living.
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Cioran, vanité, suicide, écriture, vanity, writing
Citation
"Quêtes littéraires" 2018, nº 8, s. 153-165