Intertexts

Intertexts, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2002 Alterity and the “Care of the Self”: Montaigne’s essay “Of Friendship Z a h i Z a l l o u a P r i n c e t o n U n i v e r s i t y Montaigne’s essay “Of Friendship” represents aparticularly interesting textual space in which the author’s quests for self-knowledge and knowledge of the Other intersect, where the preliminary project of self-exploration—“I am myself the matter of my book” (“To the Reader” 2)—is supplemented by an exploration of the Other, the “perfect friend,” Etienne de La Boetie. The oubleobjectiveoftheessaymakestheauthor’ssearchforself-understanding inseparable from the question “Who is La Boetie?,” or rather “Who nw La Boetie?”orevenmoreprecisely:“WhowasLaBoetieforMontaigne?"Formuatingthequestionthiswayunderscorestheimportanceofthesubjectofrep ¬ resentation (Montaigne the essayist) in relation to the object represented (La oetie). In this paper, Iseek to elucidate Montaigne’s writing of La Boetie through the optics of Foucault’s notion of the “care of the sclP (le sottci de ^0Foucault ’s late turn to this ethical idea, which he derived from the ancient /^^^Ptct:ept epimelesthai sautou, “to take care of yourself” (Technologies of£e/f 19), however, did not reflect anaive wish to “return” to the quasiranscendentalsubjectwhosedemisehehadcelebratedinTheOrderofThings . Foucault still rejected an apriori understanding of the subfr *” k is riot asubstance) but now shifted his genealogical focus omtheformationofthesubjecttotheseifsownactiveself-formationas rroject through specific “practices of self’(“The Ethics of Care for the Self’ self-f® interview, Foucault underscored the aesthetic dimension of th “From the idea that the self is not given to us, Ithink that practical consequence: we have to create ourselves as awork t-f". i>:he Genealogy of Ethics” 237). Indeed, the care of the self enaself ^ stylized relationship to oneself (his rapport dsoi), tivitv ff ^ hermeneutical process but on the creative ac-®^rr-fashioning. In the care of the self, writing and the cultivation of sellarealsointimatelylinked: Takingcareofoneselfbe ^came linked to constant writing activity. The self is wmething to write about, atheme or object (subject) of writing activity, hat is not amodern trait born of the Reformation or of romanticism; it is oneofthemostancientWesterntraditions.Itwaswellestablishedanddeeply rootedwhen AugustinestartedhisConfessions.{TechnolopjiesoftheSelf27) PrefiguringFoucault’sreflections,Montaignecommentsontheinter¬ connectedness between self and writing: “(c) Ihave no more made my book tan my book has made me—a book consubstantial with its author” (“On iving the Lie” 504). Through his consubstantiality thesis, Montaigne I Zalloua—Alterity and the “Care of the Self 2 3 illustrates aremarkable sensitivity to the transformative potential of his ecriture. In the following pages, Iwill explore how Montaigne’s essayistic writing (as a“practice of self’) contributes to the fashioning of aself that radi¬ cally differs from previous paradigmatic models: namely, the Augustinian con¬ fessional self and the Ciceronian humanist self. And even more importandy, I will discuss how Montaigne’s fashioning or essaying of friendship affects his ethical relationship to La Boetie (his rapport aautrui), that is, how the essay¬ ist rhetorically extends his care of the self to acare for the Other. Discoursing about Friendship: Two Metaphors Distraught by the death of La Boetie, Montaigne shares with his father in aletter, presumably written shortly after the traumatic event, his feelings for this irreplaceable friend: “The /oxf would be mine, for Iwould lose the com¬ panyofsogreat,sowise,andsosureafriend,suchafriendthatIwouldbecer¬ tain never to find another like him” (1048).' Faced with this irrecoverable loss, Montaigne writes “Of Friendship” as atestimony of his unmatched love for La Boetie: the death of the Other thus inaugurates the birth of Montaigne’s literary self. Montaigne begins the essay with ameditation on friendship (drawing on theGreekandRomanconceptsofphiliaandamicitia).Heproceedstoestab¬ lishthesinequanonconditionsforfriendship.Forthecultivationoffriend¬ ship,MontaigneinsiststhatcommunicationwiththeOtherisfundamental. “Friendshipfeedsoncommunication”(136)(sodoesthe“friendshipA sufficient” reader, between venir between Montaigne and his attentive theauthoroftheEssaysandhissurrogateobjectofcommunication^),and whatnaturallypromotescommunicationisequalitybetweenbothparties. Consequently,Montaignedismissesthehierarchicalrelationshipbetweenfa¬ therandsonasanexemplaroffriendship,sinceitisrespectandnotfriendship thatultimatelybindsthetwotogether.Andunlikefraternal,heterosexual,ho¬ mosexual,andconjugalrelationships,onlyfriendshiptakesitselfasend.In¬ deed, the exclusion of self-interest is anecessary condition for friendship: o r Thereisnothingtowhichnamreseemstohaveinclinedusmorethantoso¬ ciety.(c)AndAristotlesaysthatgoodlegislatorshavehadmorecarefor friendshipthanforjustice,(a)Nowtheultimatepointintheperfectionofso¬ cietyisthis.For(c)ingeneral,allassociationsthatareforgedandnounshed bypleasureorprofit,bypublicorprivateneeds,arelessbeaudftilandnoble, and the less friendships, in so far as they mix into friendship another cause and objectandrewardthanfriendshipitself(136,emphasisadded) Excellent philia or vera amicitia is thus disinterested: it is ahuman relation¬ ship in its purest form, arelationship...