This essay discusses Elie Wiesel’s Les portes de la forêt and the author’s exploration of apophatic discourse. It argues that Wiesel problematizes four aspects of apophasis: de-naming, alterity, secrecy, and joy. This signifies that the experience of absence (from language, from the world, from the self) is not merely a uniform and monochrome experience but a layered and textured darkness, interspersed with profane and sacred illuminations. Through the apophatic experience of Wiesel’s character, we bear witness to the extreme richness of our shadow and to its relation with the question of the divine. [*] [1]
[*] This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/89/1.5/S/62259, Project “Applied social, human and political sciences” co-financed by the European Social Fund within the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007-2013.
[1] In the Islamic tradition, i.e. the writings of Sohrawardi, the Archangel Gabriel is portrayed as having a dark wing (pertaining to the terrestrial realm) and a light wing (pertaining to the spiritual realm).
