Lecture on Tiqqun

The Faculty of Arts ‘Literature and Comparison’ research seminar series continues tomorrow with a lecture by Thierry Tremblay, entitled ‘Metaphysics, Destruction and the Jeune-Fille: On Tiqqun’.

The concept of Tiqqun comes from the Kabbalah. As restoration, reparation, or reunification of the dispersion of the spirit, it could be linked, to the Christian theological concept of apocatastasis.

Tiqqun is also the name of a French philosophical journal. Two issues were published, in 1999 and in 2001. In the tradition of radical avant-gardes, Tiqqun calls “without addressee” for a messianic revolution that would deeply transform the world and its understanding by restoring integral justice in an apocalyptical fashion; in the footsteps of Situationism International (SI), Tiqqun criticises the domination of ‘Spectacle’ in contemporary society and what Marx described as the ‘metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties’ of commodity.

The object of this paper is to present Tiqqun within its philosophical context as well as the genealogical milieu of French avant-garde.

Since Tiqqun is broadly known for its aftermath, part of the presentation will be devoted to similitude and differences between Tiqqun and the subversive work of the Invisible Committee.

Dr Tremblay studied in Montreal and in Paris, where he received a Ph.D. in literary studies with a dissertation on the work of Pierre Klossowski. He taught at the Anglo-American University, Charles University in Prague and at the University of Cyprus.

He is currently senior lecturer in the Department of French. His research interests include literature, philosophy, theology and art.

The lecture will be held in Lecture Theatre 1 and will begin at 6.30 p.m.