Annabelle Dufourcq

French Merleau-Ponty scholar; author of Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire (Phaenomenologica vol. 204, Springer, 2012), a substantial monograph on MP's philosophy of the imaginary. The wiki encounters Dufourcq via Décarie-Daigneault 2024's use of her chapter "La conquête de l'authenticité" (in Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire, pp. 255–340) — specifically her account at p. 306 of authenticity as enacted across self-differentiation and surplus rather than retrieved as adequation between origin and interpretation. This account underwrites the transtemporal reading of MP that Décarie-Daigneault deploys against the intemporal preservation-of-pure-meaning model.

Key Points

  • Authenticity as enactment, not adequation. Dufourcq's central claim (in Décarie-Daigneault's reading, Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire p. 306): "The interpreter assumes a respectful distance toward the author, does not pretend that his interpretation can, as a truth-adequation, be substituted to the original text, but he strives to let himself be inspired by the spirit of the text [...], he thus retrieves what was, in it, its most profound sense, but 'retrieves' it only by living according to it, by opening himself at every instant to a future that always must be created anew." (Décarie-Daigneault 2024 n. 52, my translation.)
  • Trans- not intemporal. Dufourcq's signature distinction (Décarie-Daigneault 2024 n. 53): "things, ideas and works of art truly endure and acquire an eternal life, not intemporal, but transtemporal." The transtemporal is across time with contamination, betrayal, taking-up, and re-creation; the intemporal would be outside time as preserved purity. The distinction is the wiki's anchor for using trans- sharply.
  • Vivre selon. The ethical-hermeneutic register: the interpreter does not retrieve the past meaning as an adequation; she takes it up by living according to it. This is the operative model of authenticity Décarie-Daigneault uses throughout the cave-painting case.
  • MP's ontology of the imaginary as the broader project. Dufourcq's 2012 book situates MP's late ontology as fundamentally an ontology of the imaginary — neither realist nor idealist, but constituted in the chiasmic intertwining of perception and image.

Connections

  • supplies the trans-/intemporal distinction underlying transtemporality — Dufourcq's "endure transtemporally, not intemporally" formulation is the wiki's load-bearing articulation.
  • supplies the model of vivre selon / authenticity-as-enactment — pivotal for the ethical register of transtemporality and for the closing argument of decarie-daigneault-2024-crooked-finger.
  • is read through decarie-daigneault-2024-crooked-finger — Décarie-Daigneault cites Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire p. 306 (the Phaenomenologica vol. 204 edition).
  • converges with Cohen's "refuse to petrify" — Dufourcq's vivre selon and Cohen's mourning model both reject preservation-as-purity in favor of ethical taking-up.

Open Questions

  • How systematic is Dufourcq's transtemporal account in the broader 2012 monograph? Décarie-Daigneault cites a specific chapter ("La conquête de l'authenticité"). Whether the transtemporal-vs-intemporal distinction is a key load-bearing distinction throughout Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire or a localized argument in this chapter would require direct engagement.
  • Does Dufourcq engage MP's IP lectures specifically? The transtemporality-as-institution-in-its-nascent-state formula comes from IP p. 3. Whether Dufourcq's account is anchored in the IP lectures or developed from other late-MP material (V&I, Eye and Mind, Nature lectures) is unsettled in the secondary engagement Décarie-Daigneault provides.
  • What is the relationship between Dufourcq's imaginaire and MP's chiasm/wild Being? The wiki's existing coverage of MP's late ontology centers on flesh, chiasm, wild Being; Dufourcq positions the imaginary as the unifying concept. Whether these are facets of one ontology or alternative interpretive emphases would benefit from direct ingest.

Sources

  • decarie-daigneault-2024-crooked-finger — wiki's only source. Cites Dufourcq, Annabelle, "La conquête de l'authenticité," in Merleau-Ponty, une ontologie de l'imaginaire, Phaenomenologica vol. 204, Springer, 2012, pp. 255–340 (specifically p. 306, notes 52, 53).