Claudia Elisa Annovazzi

Abstract

Known mainly for his hermeneutical thought, Ricoeur contributed also to the aesthetic inquiry with his reflections on poetical language. In these works, he suggested the distinction of the three dimensions of mimesis: the first one between the author and his work, the second one about the fiction of the work and the last one between the work and his reader. Ricoeur focused on the second and the third aspects, but not enough on the first. Following this path, he was able to show the creative power of poetical languages – especially in The living Metaphor – and its ontological relevance – mainly in Time and Narrative. But he omitted to link these ideas with a solid reflection on the role of the author. Some suggestions about that can be found in the investigations on the work of the historian in Time and narrative. Volume 3. This creates an association with another apparently distant work – The hermeneutic of witness – that offers the most interesting idea for an originally aesthetic interpretation of Ricoeur’s thought: that is to consider the work of art as work of witness.

Claudia Elisa Annovazzi is a PhD student at the Università del Piemonte Orientale, where she is currently concluding her research on H. U. von Balthasar’s theological aesthetic. She exposed and presented her aesthetic interpretation of Ricoeur’s thought at the European Society for Aesthetics Conferences (Grenoble 2011) with the paper: «Le Témoignage des Images. Un Interprétation Esthétique de Ricoeur», now in Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics, vol. 3, pp. 51-66.