Jean-Luc Nancy, a Romantic Philosopher?

This paper will, in its successive steps and movements, revolve around one single question, a question that might, at first sight, come across as somewhat irrelevant or even impertinent within the context of philosophical academic discourse. How romantic is Jean-Luc Nancy? Or: there specifically Nancyan sense romance? Notwithstanding these unscholarly formulations, I am increasingly convinced love, indeed more romance, most intimate inspiration Nancy’s work, key unlocking all other keys. The theme love has always played an important role his from early essay “Shattered Love” (“L’amour en éclats,” 1986) to later works on body pleasure. In this paper, will touch upon number texts, but particularly refer two recent works, yet untranslated book Sexistence 2017 Expectation: Philosophy, Literature (2018, published French 2015 Demande: Littérature et philosophie). is, passionate interaction, intrigue, writing, dramatization. quite heterogeneous web associations already implies age-old issues: relation between thinking; literature; and, subsequently, philosophy issue itself. knot uniting issues under heading “romance” been firmly tied about centuries ago, late eighteenth-century movement German, i.e., Jena, Romanticism, significant moment intellectual history where barriers literature were broken down where, generally put, world was conceived matter romanticization. Although Nancy himself would be reluctant call Romantic philosopher historical word, exactly what want argue here: show – by extension thinking tout court should placed tradition German rather than of, for instance, phenomenology, ontology, proper. claim massive depth scope can impossibly explored here exhaustive way. Instead, flesh out perspective advancing four hypotheses enable mark contours romanticism. With exploration, hope do three things once: firstly, underscore take core pulse thinking: romance; secondly, investigate extent might traced back tradition; thirdly, emphasize why relevant us today.