The central place of Danilo Kiš’s novel Hourglass, which is a kind of an illness/disease narrative (écriture patografique), is occupied by the human condition as an animal rationale. It was one of the subjects raised by many intellectuals, including Edmund Husserl, whose name does not appear here accidentally. Phenomenology was a strong intellectual impetus for the authors of the new French novel. Although in his statements Kiš resolutely distanced himself from any connections with him, emphasizing the documentary, auto/biographical character of his work, in this article I point to the existent (albeit unintended) connections between Kiš’s novel and the literary views of his French colleagues. Peščanik Danila Kiša kao vrsta (auto)patografskog narativa o psihičkoj bolesti roman je u kojem centralno mesto zauzima refleksija o stanju čoveka kao animal rationale, što je jedna od tema razmišljanja mnogih intelektualaca, pa i Edmunda Huserla, čiji se stavovi u ovom članku ne pojavljuju slučajno. Kišove izjave u kojim se on odlučno distancira od inspiracija novim francuskim romanom, ističući dokumentarni, (auto)biografski karakter svog dela, postaju ovde polazna tačka za analizu stvarnih veza Peščanika sa idejama pisaca ove heterogene struje, za koje je snažan intelektualni i filozofski impuls bila enomenološka misao.