Abstract
This essay investigates the fragile intersection where rumor and a more "authentic" modality of language can be shown to cross over into one another. Treating the relationship of Benjamin, Heidegger and Rousseau to rumoro-logical paranoia, "Street-Talk" interprets the epistemological teetering between the knowing and not-knowing around which Fama articulates her power. All three of these thinkers are shown to be exemplarily afflicted by rumorous utterances and share a drive to create, in their works, a rumor control center. Often these controls take over the features which they attempt to disown; thus the greatest moment of truth-telling appropriates the form of inferential small-talk. The essay analyzes a temporality of writing disclosed by Rousseau's Promenades in terms of an après-ma-mort structure. Finally, guided by Blanchot's insights and Huet's notion of monsterized publicity, the essay addresses the rapport of rumor to oeuvre: Ecce Fama.
Keywords:
- Keyword: rumor
- Keyword: authentic
- Keyword: language
- Keyword: modality
- Keyword: Benjamin
- Keyword: Heidegger
- Keyword: Rousseau
- Keyword: rumoro-logical paranoia
- Keyword: knowing
- Keyword: not-knowing
- Keyword: Fama
- Keyword: truth-telling
- Keyword: small-talk
- Keyword: Promenades
- Keyword: après-ma-mort
- Keyword: structure
- Keyword: Blanchot
- Keyword: Huet
- Keyword: monsterized publicity
- Keyword: Ecce Fama
How to Cite:
Ronell, A., (1986) “Street Talk”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1192
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