Abstract

This essay tackles the question of a possible-impossible theological re-working of the figure of « the liberal ironist » as cultural hero in the work of the American philosopher Richard Rorty. After a short description of the « aesthetic turn » in relation to the advent of the figure of the « liberal ironist », the author considers Rorty’s « secularism » and identifies the principal ways in which this philosopher resists attempts to relativize (or challenge) the opposition between « ironic discourse » and « theological discourse ». The author then proceeds to describe the conditions under which an ironist may achieve liberal status ; to that end, he examines Rorty’s reading of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.