Eine gewisse unmögliche Möglichkeit, vom Ereignis zu sprechen

Lecture as part of a seminar titled "Is it Possible to Speak of the Event?" led by Gad Soussana and Alexis Nouss, Montreal 2000. When it comes to clarifying the relationship between speaking and the event, there are at least two possibilities: On one hand, there is speaking about an event, which involves naming and describing what has happened; on the other hand, there is performative speaking, which is itself an event, such as a confession or a condemnation. If speaking about an event is, in a way, impossible because it can only occur retrospectively and because it necessarily misses the singularity of the event by relying on general terms, then in the performative speech act, it is the impossibility of the event itself that announces itself: illustrated by the examples of giving, forgiving, and hospitality.