Silence as a modality of mystical experience in the work of Sylvie Germain

Silence, in the work of French author Sylvie Germain, is both a sign of God's discreet presence and a human act of humility and patience, according to an analysis of her essay Acte de silence (2011). The article argues that silence is necessary for mystical experience and examines a passage from her novel L'Enfant Méduse (1991) to illustrate how this understanding shapes her poetics of the transcendent, a feature that continues in her later novels.

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Abstract

The article deals with the issue of silence in the thinking and work of the contemporary French author Sylvie Germain. The starting point for deliberation is the author’s essay Acte de silence (2011), in which silence is conceived both as a manifestation of God’s discreet appearance and as an act of humility and patience of man. The presence of silence seems to be a necessary condition for mystical experience. Silence understood in this way is the subject of the analysis in a selected passage from Germain’s novel L’Enfant Méduse (1991), which suggests some specific features of the author’s poetics of the transcendent, also present in her later novel work.