Bare Exteriority: Philosophy of the Image and the Image of Philosophy in Martin Heidegger and Maurice Blanchot

Abstract

In a late text entitled Our Clandestine Companion Maurice Blanchot testifies his at once intimate and conflict-ridden relationship to philosophy. If philosophy must be considered as Blanchot’s unavowable, mostly nameless and face-less companion; Blanchot’s restrained presence in turn was not less deci-sive as a dialogue partner for French post-Heideggerian philosophy (Levinas, Foucault, Derrida, Nancy). In order to apprehend the intricate design left by the weaving shuttle going back and forth in this infinite interchange, I will focus on what could be the common and nonetheless dividing mem-brane between them: the question of the image.