Jean-Pierre Faye (born 19 July 1925) is a French philosopher and writer of fiction and

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

Life and career

Faye was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He was member of the editing committee of the avant-garde literary review ''

Tel Quel ''Tel Quel'' (translated into English as, variously: "as is," "as such," or "unchanged") was a French avant-garde literary magazine published between 1960 and 1982. History and profile ''Tel Quel'' was founded in 1960 in Paris by Philippe Soll ...

'', and later of ''Change''. He received the

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

for his 1964 novel ''L'Écluse'' (Éditions Seuil). He is a regular contributor to

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

's literary journal ''Chimère''. With

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

and others, he authored the "Blue Report" (french: Le rapport bleu) which led to the

Collège international de philosophie The Collège international de philosophie (Ciph), located in Paris' 5th arrondissement, is a tertiary education institute placed under the trusteeship of the French government department of research and chartered under the French 1901 Law on associ ...

, an

open university The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, in 1983. Yet he soon turned against deconstructionism, postmodernism and its main apostles — as reflected in ''Langages totalitaires 2: la raison narrative'' (1995). His essays, including ''Théorie du récit'' and ''Langages Totalitaires'', remain influential studies of the use and abuse of language by

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

states and ideologies. Faye is credited with creating the

horseshoe theory In political science and popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that the extreme left and the extreme right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the ...

Select bibliography

* ''Dictionnaire politique portatif en cinq mots: démagogie, terreur, tolérance, répression, violence. Essai de philosophie politique.''. Gallimard, 1982 * ''Balthus : les dessins.'' Adam Biro, 1998. * ''Concepts'' number 7: ''Jean-Pierre Faye et la Philosophie''. Sils Maria, 2005. * ''Introduction aux langages totalitaires : Théorie et Transformations du récit.'' Revised edition Hermann, 2003. * ''Journal du voyage absolu : Jeux et enjeux du Grand Danger, accompagné des Transformants féminins.'' Hermann, 2003. * (with Anne-Marie de la Vilaine) ''La déraison antisémite et son langage.'' Actes Sud, 1993. * ''La frontière: Sarajevo en archipel.'' Actes Sud, 1999. * ''Langages totalitaires.'' Reprinted Hermann, 2004. * ''La philosophie desormais.'' Colin, 2004. * ''Le langage meurtrier.'' Hermann, 1996. * ''Le livre du vrai. Evénement violence.'' L'Harmattan, 1998. * ''Le Siècle des idéologies.'' Agora, 2002. * ''Nietzsche et Salomé.'' Ecrivains, 2000. * (with Jacqueline Russ) ''Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?'' Colin, 1997.

References

External links

*
Review of works by Faye
by Pierre Favre in ''Revue française de science politique'', vol. 26, number 3 (1976), pp. 600–610. *
"H. et h. ou la métaphysique du boulanger"
in ''Chimère'' vol 8. (Summer 1990) 1925 births Faye,Jean-Pierre Faye,Jean-Pierre French male essayists Living people Prix Renaudot winners Writers from Paris {{France-writer-stub