Vanités et résistances de la pensée critique. Du kitsch philosophique dans "Maîtres anciens" de Thomas Bernhard
In critically examining Thomas Bernhard’s Old Masters, this essay questions the relations between literary writing, philosophical thought and kitsch. Beyond the surprising assumption that philosophy  might also be a matter of taste, seduction and sentiments, analyzing the notion of philosophical kitsch allows for consideration of critical discourse as a double-edged sword that promises not only the emancipation but also the autoalienation of the thinking Kitschmensch. The figure of Reger, the principal character in Bernhard’s orchestrated comedy, embodies this paradoxical critical perspective. This paradox of kitsch critical thought attests to problems of legitimation that arise alongside a growing scepticism towards the claims of grand emancipatory narratives.  This examination of philosophy’s mise en scène in the novel allows for perceiving a specifically literary mode of thinking. This essay suggests that literary thinking differs from philosophical exposition as well as from metadiscourse generally. Literature, because it shows more than it affirms, therefore allows for understanding in a very specific manner the similarities and tensions between philosophy and kitsch, culture and barbarism. In sum, this study focuses in this literary specificity that comes to appear as a form of resistance to commodification, vanity, domestication – in short, to the kitschification of critical thought.
Kitsch Thomas Bernhard Old Masters philosophy critic resistance vanity literary thinking