Jean-Pierre Faye (born 19 July 1925) is a French philosopher and writer of fiction and

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...

Life and career

Faye was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was member of the editing committee of the avant-garde literary review ''

Tel Quel ''Tel Quel'' (translated into English as, variously: "as is," "as such," or "unchanged") was a French avant-garde literary magazine published between 1960 and 1982. History and profile ''Tel Quel'' was founded in 1960 in Paris by Philippe Sol ...

'', and later of ''Change''. He received the

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the Prix Goncour ...

for his 1964 novel ''L'Écluse'' (Éditions Seuil). He is a regular contributor to

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...

's literary journal ''Chimère''. With

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

and others, he authored the "Blue Report" (), which led to the

Collège international de philosophie The Collège international de philosophie (; CIPh), located in Paris' 5th arrondissement, is a tertiary education institute placed under the trusteeship of the French government department of research and chartered under the French 1901 Law on asso ...

, an

open university The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

, in 1983. He soon turned against

deconstructionism In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

and

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

, as he reflected in ''Langages totalitaires 2: la raison narrative'' (1995). His essays, including ''Théorie du récit'' and ''Langages Totalitaires'', remain influential studies of the use and abuse of language by

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

states and ideologies. Faye is credited with creating the

horseshoe theory In popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that advocates of the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the political spectrum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the ...

Select bibliography

* ''Dictionnaire politique portatif en cinq mots: démagogie, terreur, tolérance, répression, violence. Essai de philosophie politique''. Gallimard, 1982. * ''Balthus : les dessins.'' Adam Biro, 1998. . * ''Concepts'' number 7: ''Jean-Pierre Faye et la Philosophie''. Sils Maria, 2005. . * ''Introduction aux langages totalitaires : Théorie et Transformations du récit.'' Revised edition Hermann, 2003. . * ''Journal du voyage absolu : Jeux et enjeux du Grand Danger, accompagné des Transformants féminins.'' Hermann, 2003. . * (with Anne-Marie de la Vilaine) ''La déraison antisémite et son langage.'' Actes Sud, 1993. . * ''La frontière: Sarajevo en archipel.'' Actes Sud, 1999. . * ''Langages totalitaires.'' Reprinted Hermann, 2004. . * ''La philosophie desormais.'' Colin, 2004. . * ''Le langage meurtrier.'' Hermann, 1996. . * ''Le livre du vrai. Evénement violence.'' L'Harmattan, 1998. . * ''Le Siècle des idéologies.'' Agora, 2002. . * ''Nietzsche et Salomé.'' Ecrivains, 2000. . * (with Jacqueline Russ) ''Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?'' Colin, 1997. .

References

External links

Review of works by Faye
by Pierre Favre in ''Revue française de science politique'' , vol. 26, issue 3 (1976), pp. 600–610.
"H. et h. ou la métaphysique du boulanger"
in ''Chimère'', vol. 8 (Summer 1990). 1925 births Faye, Jean-Pierre Faye, Jean-Pierre French male essayists Living people Prix Renaudot winners Writers from Paris {{France-writer-stub