“FRANCISPONGEAR” the thing: lyrical subject and perception in Le Parti Pris des Choses

Abstract

The aim of this work in the reading of one of the poems from the book Le Parti Pris des Choses (1942) by Francis Ponge. In a book where the main point seems to be that of giving voice to things putting them in the foreground, nothing more natural than the (dis)appearance of the lyrical subject. Our intention is to observe in which way happens the relation between this subject, specially objectfied, and the things that he evokes. According to Ponge, it is a matter of considering the most trivial things (the rain, the oyster, the cigarette) and to mention them with the maximum of fidelity and objectiveness. Taking as a pattern what is called “objeul”, we have here the things iluninated and evoked, showing their multiple metamorphosis and aspects. By naming, these poems in prose open the possibility to uncover and iluminate what the habit (of the man’s look and of the used language) finished by covering and contaminating. In the attempt of giving voice to the world and facing the things, Ponge’s lyrical subject accepts to transfer himself to them, opening his alterity. It is this relation, based on the perception of an objectified lyrical subject and his modus operandi, our main purpose in this article, where we have as supporting theories those of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.