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: rumor, authentic, language, modality, Benjamin, Heidegger, Rousseau, rumoro-logical paranoia, knowing, not-knowing, Fama, truth-telling, small-talk, Promenades, après-ma-mort, structure, Blanchot, Huet, monsterized publicity, 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