Four grammatical features of Michel Henry’s writing that make his books difficult for non-natives.
Understanding the grammatical structure of a sentence is crucial to understanding its meaning.
I recently began reading Michel Henry’s Généalogie de la psychanalyse in French. At first, I found it challenging to navigate through because I seldom understood the grammatical structure of some sentences just as I read them. But after closer examination of them, I think I have discovered four grammatical features that make the book difficult.
So I would like to share them with you.
1. Long cleft sentences.
He often uses cleft sentences. A cleft sentence has the following structure in English: “It is … that ~.” This sentence structure is used to emphasize the information between “It is” and “that.”
The French equivalent is “C’est … que ~.” Henry uses this structure frequently. And what makes his cleft sentences hard to identify is that he the part between “C’est” and “que” is often extremely long. Sometimes it is no feewer than 4 lines long.
So if a sentence begins with “C’est,” I suggest anticipating “que” that signals the sentence structure. This way, you won’t be puzzled by the long interposition.
2. Interruption and resumption of a sentence
He has a unique way of interrupting and resuming a sentence.
An example in English would be something like this: “… with the result that the mind, that the eye has …” This makes it difficult to understand how the parts before and after the comma are related.
So, if you see a comma (“virgule” in French by the way) when reading his book, I recommend stopping for a moment and moving your eyes backward to find the grammatical connection before and after the comma.
3. Combination of a relative pronoun with a group proposition
He often combines a relative pronoun with a group proposition. English equivalents would be “by means of which” or “in terms of which.”
So every time you see “lequel” or “laquelle” with a preposition in front of it, consider whether the preposition is part of a group preposition.
4. He connects a relative clause with an adjective phrase or word with “et”
In English, when the conjunction “and” is used to connect two things in a sentence, it connects two words, two phrases, or two clauses, not a word and a phrase, nor a word and a clause, nor a phrase and a clause.
However, Henry often uses “et” to link an adjective with a relative clause, or an adjevtice phrase with a relative clause. An English equivalent would be “We want a house with a large garden and that has a basement.” In his typical cases, the latter adjective is a relative clause.
Therefore, when you see an “et” followed by “que” or “qui,” and gets confused about the meaning of the sentence, try looking for a adjective or an adjective phrase before the “et.”
