Affectivity and bereavement: a phenomenological and literary approach

Abstract

In this paper we propose to expose the importance of affectivity in contemporary French phenomenology through two central concepts of Henri Maldiney's thought: “le transpossible” and “la transpassibilité”. In addition, we will try to concretize and deepen this question by attending to the experience of bereavement, that is, the loss of other as an affective event. To this end, we will draw on some of Claude Romano's ideas, but also on the literary testimonies of the writers Joan Didion and C.S. Lewis. The experience of mourning will thus be shown as an exemplary case in which the existent is affected by events. Finally, and as a conclusion, we will have been able to think of the radical exposure or openness of existence to events (transpassibility), as well as the capacity of these to touch the horizons of the subject.