The Tortoise and the Corpse: Two Excisions from Maurice Blanchot’s ‘Les Deux Versions de L’imaginaire’

Abstract

Maurice Blanchot’s ‘Les Deux versions de l’imaginaire’ was first published in Les Cahiers de la Pléiade in 1951 and was subsequently revised as an appendix to the classic volume of 1955, L’Espace littéraire, in which Blanchot discusses the experience of literature through readings of Heidegger, Kafka, Mallarmé and Rilke.1 In ‘Les Deux versions’, Blanchot outlines his concept of fascination which throughout his oeuvre he argues is central to literature. Les Cahiers de la Pléiade were launched by Jean Paulhan in 1946 and ran for 13 issues until 1952. ‘Les Deux versions’ was Blanchot’s final of five contributions.2Les Cahiers were set up partly in the wake of the ‘littérature engagée’ of Sartre, publishing authors such as Breton, Céline, Artaud, Char, Ponge and Kafka.3 In contrast to Blanchot’s later, regular publications in La Nouvelle Revue française, those produced for the more expensive, less frequent and less widely circulated Cahiers appear to be primarily occasional or irregular pieces.4 While there are several apparently minor changes made throughout the text (all but two of the original’s 21 paragraphs are modified in L’Espace littéraire), most significantly two key passages are excised. In this piece, I shall set out and explore these cuts.