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The secret according to Heidegger and “The Purloined Letter” by Poe

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Abstract

Heidegger’s lecture course on “Parmenides” (1942/1943) lays strong emphasis on the dimension of lethe in truth (aletheia). Such a withdrawal belonging to unconcealment should not be confused with a dissembling or hiding (pseudos). A concealment pertaining to the presence of a thing can be illustrated by means of a phenomenological description of oblivion, anamnesis, the rare, the gift and the secret. Especially Heidegger’s account of an “open secret” lends itself to a philosophical interpretation of Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”. Dupin recurrently meditates on the right way of keeping a secret and mocks the police for confusing lethe with pseudos. Incidentally, stealing is shown to be no less a form of unconcealment than the gift. Poe’s description of how and where The Purloined Letter is openly present in the minister’s study sheds light on how a thing can remain secret by giving way to other things.

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Notes

  1. The current German translation says, almost in Heideggerian terms, “Vielleicht liegt das Geheimnis ein bisschen zu offen am Tage.”

  2. The content is the following verse from Atrée by Crébillon fils, that Poe quotes in French: “Un dessein si funeste/S’il est digne d’Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.”

  3. Therefore one cannot claim, as Lacan seems to do, that in changing hands, the stolen letter also changes gender. For the Lacanian interpretation of “The Purloined Letter”, see Lacan (1966), 11–41, as well as Lacan (1978), 228–240.

References

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  • Heidegger, Martin. 1982. Parmenides, ed. Manfred Frings. GA 54. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.

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  • Lacan, Jacques. 1966. Ecrits. Paris: Editions du Seuil.

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  • Lacan, Jacques. 1978. Séminaire II. Le moi dans la théorie de Freud et dans la technique de la psychanalyse. Paris: Editions du Seuil.

  • Poe, E.A. 1993. Tales of Mystery and Imagination, ed. J.M. Dent. London: The Everyman Library.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leuven, Louvain, Belgium

    Rudolf Bernet

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  1. Rudolf Bernet
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Correspondence to Rudolf Bernet.

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Translated from French by Dominique Poncelet.

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Bernet, R. The secret according to Heidegger and “The Purloined Letter” by Poe. Cont Philos Rev 47, 353–371 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-014-9298-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-014-9298-9

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