Le cas du casuiste. Valéry préfacier

Valéry likes to think in terms of cases. His many critical texts are proof of this. It is preferably in the preface that Valéry chooses to explain himself. This contribution aims to examine several prefaces in order to see how Valéry isolates and turns into a ‘case’ what had previously seemed to be mere elements of literary history, seemingly unproblematic. For Valéry, the ‘case’ appears as a meta-notion within his system, in that it is never truly defined. It appears sporadically as a word he frequently uses – a sort of median term, operative in his efforts toward precision, refinement, and singularization.