The ”turn” in Patočka’s literary discussions

Čtvrteční seminář CTS

Přednášející: Inês Pereira Rodrigues

Patočka discusses philosophically a number of literary works (by Dostoeivský, Checkhov, and others). Many of these works share in common that they depict an experience of loss of meaning. In them, we are witnesses to a characters' spiraling movement into a meaningless void. It is at the fullest depth of this experience that Patočka seems to propose that there is the possibility of a turn. What is this possibility?