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Narrative Constitution of Friendship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

CHRISTOPHER MOORE  and
SAMUEL FREDERICK
CHRISTOPHER MOORE*
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
SAMUEL FREDERICK
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
*
*<[email protected]>
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Abstract

We argue that friendship is constituted in the practice of narration, not merely identified through psychological or sociological criteria. We show that whether two people have, as Aristotle argues, ‘lived together’ in ‘mutually acknowledged goodwill’ can be determined only through a narrative reconstruction of a shared past. We demonstrate this with a close reading of Thomas Bernhard’s Wittgenstein’s Nephew: A Friendship (1982). We argue that this book provides not only an illustration but also an enactment of the practice of friendship as the urge to redeem—and thus to instantiate—Aristotelian suzên (‘living together’) by means of its telling.

Nous soutenons que l’amitié se constitue dans la pratique de la narration, et n’est donc pas identifiable uniquement par des critères psychologiques ou sociologiques. En effet, que deux personnes aient, comme Aristote le fait valoir, «vécu ensemble» dans la «bienveillance mutuellement reconnue» ne peut être déterminé qu’à travers une reconstruction narrative d’un passé partagé. Cela est démontré par une lecture attentive du Neveu de Wittgenstein : une amitié (1982) de Thomas Bernhard. Nous soutenons que ce livre fournit non seulement une illustration, mais aussi une mise en scène de la pratique de l’amitié comme envie de racheter — et donc d’instancier — par son récit le suzên («vivre ensemble») aristotélicien.

Keywords

friendshipThomas BernhardAristotlenarrativeliterature and philosophy
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 111 - 130
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Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

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