Seminar 10: 2005–2006 J. W. von Goethe (1749–1832)

Under the general heading “Madness and the Social Link,” our seminars continue to look to books that examine this relation in a never-ending present. One of these works is the little book re-edited regularly at troublesome moments in our history: Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, ¹ written at the age of 18 by La Boétie, who became Montaigne’s friend “because it was he, because it was I.” We also turn to another little book: La mémoire courte ² by Jean Cassou, who translated Don Quixote after World War II. La mémoire courte (Short Memory) was published in 1953, after prosecution of collaborators began, bringing condemnation to some and amnesty to others.