Maurice Blanchot

Abstract

Maurice Blanchot (b. 1907–d. 2003) is a profoundly unique and influential figure of the 20th century. Sitting between philosophy and literature, his work explores the philosophical significance of literature by considering the demand it places on thought. For Blanchot, when thought is pushed to its absolute limit, we encounter the impossible, the singular, the outside—a radical region that is unthematizable. This, he argues, is ultimately the region of literature. Where everyday language tries to represent the world and where philosophical language tries to secure meaning, literary language, by contrast, is subversive as it does not carry the responsibility of representation or clarification. Words are not self-identical in literature, which means that the space of literature, as Blanchot refers to it, is characterized by an “atmosphere of uncertainty” (Blanchot 1985, p. 52, cited under Récit). This uncertainty is what drags us to the limit of possibility. Somewhat paradoxically, this limit/impossibility is not an invitation to nihilism, but rather the very condition of thought itself. It is no exaggeration to say that to understand Blanchot one must come to terms with this idea. Not only does this idea occupy his writing, but he also sees it in poets like Mallarmé, Rilke, Lautréamont; in the surrealists; and in novelists like Kafka, Proust, and Beckett. Much of his writing is dedicated to such figures. Given this demand placed on thought by literature, literature has the capacity to raise profound philosophical questions. Literature works like a springboard for Blanchot, impelling him to engage with the limit as it exists in philosophical figures like Heraclitus, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Weil. Of particular importance are his engagements with Emmanuel Levinas and Georges Bataille. In Levinas’s account of the Other, Blanchot sees the ethical and political impetus of literature. In Bataille’s work, Blanchot sees a companion of the unthinkable and an explorer of the impossible. Such a range of topics means Blanchot’s writing is voluminous and varied, comprising his early journalism, his critical writings, his own works of fiction, and his fragmentary texts. In these writings, Blanchot shows himself to be an attentive, nuanced, and very demanding thinker. Reading Blanchot requires that we read with the historical, political, and cultural contexts in view, where disaster (e.g., the Second World War) looms or echoes and where culture is at a breaking point. This article will offer a selective bibliography to help one grapple with the demands Blanchot places on us and on thought itself.