Tra simmetria relativistica e caos quantistico: immaginazione in Valéry tra scienza e letteratura

Abstract

Valéry’s relation with science has been connected by previous critics to the necessity of a purified language for his research on the human mind, or «esprit». However, recent critical attention has been drawn towards the role of imagination in Valéry as a link between scientific and artistic endeavours. Starting from such considerations, this paper is focused on the role of relativity and quantum mechanics in his works, especially the dialogues and the Mon Faust. Relativity, constructing a geometrical architecture of the universe, is both the result of imagination, and a source of further inspiration, be it artistic or scientific. Quantum mechanics, instead, seems to lead, in his opinion, to a «crisis of imaginability», due to the complete alien nature of its objects of study. This, however, does not mean that he refuses the theory altogether or that he does not reflect on its consequences and on the possibilities they bear for the arts, as his later works show.