FRANCK SALAÜN: PAUL VALÉRY AND THE SEA

Lecture (fr.) and reading (fr./dt.) German voice: Klaus Knobloch

Free entry

Born in Sète, Paul Valéry (1871 – 1945) remained faithful to the sea. It determined his imagination, his thoughts and his works, from his first poems about Le cimetière marin and L’Idée fixe or Deux hommes à la mer (1932) to his reflections on the future of Europe. He likes to swim, observing the waves and the foam conjured up in his texts. He also thinks from the perspective of what makes it possible – fishing, trade, travel, exchange and mingling. The Mediterranean thus provides him with poetic images and a political model. This lecture, illustrated with numerous examples from the anthology presented (Paul Valéry, La mer, la mer, toujours recommencée!, Paris, Rivages, 2024), offers the opportunity to rediscover a very great writer. Franck Salaün is a professor of 18th to 21st century French literature at the University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier). He specializes in Diderot and the Enlightenment and directs the series “Fictions pensantes” (Paris, Hermann), which he founded in 2010. Last year, he presented the libertarian literature of this century in Heidelberg.