Étienne Souriau’s poetics

This text begins with the history of Etienne Souriau’s Institut d’Esthetique which was extended by Rene Passeron’s poetic research in the 70s, and more recently has become the Institut ACTE. This acronym highlights the main concerns involved: art, creation, sciences of arts, and aesthetics. In fact, after Valery, Souriau contributed greatly to the fertilization of poetics, while remaining at the same time on the basic side of aisthesis. Thus, taking over Souriau’s terminology, Passeron puts the notion of instauration (which could itself be debated) at the center of the poetic “dispositif.” Moreover, Souriau proceeds also to a clarification of the Aristotelian concepts showing they can be systematically associated in the analysis of the creation and reception of works. His studies on “modes d’existence,” “the concept of œuvre”, and “correspondance des arts” (interrelations between the arts) all remain essential for the analysis of creative making.