La freccia e il cerchio
anno 3, numero 3, 2012
pp. 156-158

André Jacob
Familiar and festive occasions

   The shift from the adjective familial to familiar might widen the semantic gap between the terms family and festive occasions, as one of the peculiar traits of familiarity is a tendency to lend itself to forgetfulness, thus striving with the commotion typical of festive occasions. Yet another aspect of the familiar may intensify our experiences, as it happens when we put our trust in friendship. This may the starting point of an abiding sense of “celebration”, one which expresses an emotional and axiological success rather than a trite commonplace that would eventually contradict its meaning.
   Figuratively speaking, the “circle” of the familiar should not suffer the “arrows” of the unusual. However, when familiarity does not suffice, it tends to reach its conical tension, creating vectors that enhance diversity. Thus, the crisis of the family – a family in disorder, as Elisabeth Roudinesco suggests in one of her latest works – is rooted in the lack of security. The family cannot guarantee such sense of protection any longer, torn apart as it is by its own irreducible conflicts. It is precisely because of this tension that the closed nature of the family system – its “spherization”– turns into a controversial point, despite the denial of responsibility many tend to yield to. Also, the diversion from the family sphere in search for an intensity and diversity that could enliven familiarity itself testifies to a shift from the institutional domain to a dynamism favouring open personalization.
   The existence of a regulation is due to the gradual disappearance of oppositions which do not perform the roles attributed to them, namely that of body and soul. In their mutual interaction, the former rises to prominence at the expense of the other, yet they both take part in the anthropological process of reaching a standing position, which is neither a limitation not a goal. It is in fact a “station” in its etymological sense of stans, illuminating our path to a spiritual life. The “substancial” aspects usually associated with the notion of soul, does not avoid the risk of a “naked” indeterminacy, at the mercy of the assults performed by the body itself.
   By contrast, the often neglected “in-stanciality” which marks the process of “subjectivization” of the self we inhabit in our bodies, helps to strengthen our impetus of independence and our desire to establish new relations. Such in-stanciality exerts its influence on our existential goals, that do not concern any references to the “vital”. The manifestations of such in-stanciality –Emile Benveniste’s “discoursive instance” could be seen as one of them- surely lead to an “ex-istentialization” of life. Language plays a role in enacting the semantic shift from metaphysical to theoretical instances, eventually allowing the world to be mirrored in language and men to articulate their thoughts to the others in a consistent manner.
   In order to do so, there may be an on-going process of “in-stantiality” (as suggested by Claude Hagege in his seminar at the College de France in 2004), which contributes to a process of “becoming Subject” priorly built upon a passive “becoming subject”. Articulated through an alternance of In-stans/con-stans that replaces the physical stans, the process unravels our spatial condition in relation to a given environment and links it to the process of “temporalization”. This constructive dimension is unknown and definitely coextensive to our temporal experience both in the sense of a reduced and abstract relation with space and in relation to a process of “symbolization” and “autonomization”. Here the freedom of the body literalizes an open approach towards the ‘otherness’ against an “ego-ization” which hides us into the alienating dimention of the “same”.
   Yet the “in-stantiality” is not a mere, arbitrary detour to clarify the idea of familiarity. Rather, it provides the “mesh” of a narrative fabric deeply involved in the tale of human existence and essential to human communication. The development of a condition of “in-stantiality” disclose for individuals new possibilities, evolutions and mutual opportunities. It acknowledges a variety of life pathways and allows to generate a festive mood out of trite feelings of affection.
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