Maurice Blanchot has long inspired writers, artists, and philosophers with some of the most incisive statements of what it meant to experience the traumas and turmoils of the twentieth century. Bident’s magisterial biography provides the first full-length account of Blanchot’s itinerary, drawing on unpublished letters and interviews with the writer’s close friends, while also providing a sophisticated genealogy of his thought. A journalist and activist, but also inclined to secrecy, Blanchot lived public and private lives that converged at some of the century’s most momentous occasions: He was nearly executed during the Occupation, participated prominently in the May ’68 revolution in Paris, and, more controversially, wrote for the far right in the ’30s. Even-handed throughout, Bident offers a much-needed fleshing out of a life too easily sensationalized.
Author(s): Christophe Bident, John McKeane
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 633
Tags: Maurice Blanchot, May 1968, Biography
Cover......Page 1
MAURICE BLANCHOT......Page 2
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
Translator’s Note......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Part I 1907–1923......Page 16
1. Blanchot of Quain: Genealogy, Birth, Childhood (1907–1918)......Page 18
2. Music and Family Memory: Marguerite Blanchot in Chalon (1920s)......Page 25
3. The Fedora of Death: Illness (1922–1923)......Page 28
Part II 1920s–1940......Page 34
4. The Walking Stick with the Silver Pommel: The University of Strasbourg (1920s)......Page 36
5. A Flash in the Darkness: Meeting Emmanuel Levinas (1925–1930)......Page 39
6. There Is: Philosophical Apprenticeship (1927–1930)......Page 44
7. Aligning One’s Convictions: Paris and Far-Right Circles (1930s)......Page 49
8. “Mahatma Gandhi”: A First Text by Blanchot (1931)......Page 56
9. Refusal, I. The Revolution of Spirit: La Revue Française, Réaction, and La Revue du Siècle (1931–1934)......Page 59
10. Journalist, Opponent of Hitler, National-Revolutionary: Le Journal des Débats, Le Rempart, Aux Écoutes, and La Revue du Vingtième Siècle (1931–1935)......Page 66
11. The Escalation of Rhetoric: The Launch of Combat (1936)......Page 77
12. Terrorism as a Method of Public Safety: Combat ( July–December 1936)......Page 82
13. Patriotism’s Breaking Point: L’Insurgé (1937)......Page 86
14. These Events Happened to Me in 1937: Death Sentences (1937–1938)......Page 97
15. On the Transformation of Convictions: A Journalist of the Far Right (1930s)......Page 103
16. From Revolution to Literature: Literary Criticism (1930s)......Page 106
17. Murderous Omens of Times to Come—Writing the Récits: “The Last Word” and “The Idyll” (1935–1936)......Page 116
18. Night Freely Recircled, Which Plays Us: Thomas the Obscure (1932–1940)......Page 126
Part III 1940 –1949......Page 134
19. The Universe Is to Be Found in Night: Resistance (1940–1944)......Page 136
20. Using Vichy against Vichy: Jeune France (1941–1942)......Page 142
21. Admiration and Agreement: Meeting Georges Bataille (1940–1943)......Page 150
22. In the Name of the Other: Literary Chronicles at the Journal des Débats (1941–1944)......Page 160
23. A True Writer Has Appeared: The Publication and Reception of Thomas the Obscure (1941–1942)......Page 175
24. Lift This Fog Which Is Already of the Dawn: The Publication of Aminadab (1942)......Page 178
25. Writers Who Have Given Too Much to the Present: NRF Circles (1941–1942)......Page 185
26. From Anguish to Language: The Publication of Faux pas (1943)......Page 193
27. The Prisoner of the Eyes That Capture Him: Quain (Summer 1944)......Page 197
28. The Disenchantment of the Community: Editorial Activity after Liberation (1944 –1946)......Page 202
29. The Year of Criticism: L’Arche, Les Temps Modernes, and Critique (1946)......Page 207
30. Respecting Scandal: Literary Criticism (1945–1948)......Page 210
31. The Black Stain: Writing The Most High (1946–1947)......Page 223
32. The Passion of Silence: Denise Rollin (1940s)......Page 234
33. The Mediterranean Sojourn: The Writing of the Night (1947)......Page 240
34. Something Inflexible: The Madness of the Day, a New Status for Speech (1947–1949)......Page 244
35. The Turn of the Screw: The Second Version of Thomas the Obscure (1947–1948)......Page 247
36. The Authority of Friendship: The Completion of Death Sentence (1947–1948)......Page 250
37. Quarrels in the Literary World: Publication and Reception (1948–1949)
......Page 254
Part IV 1949–1959......Page 258
38. Invisible Partner: Èze, Withdrawal (1949–1957)......Page 260
39. The Essential Solitude: Writing the Récits (1949–1953)......Page 263
40. The Radiance of a Blind Power: When the Time Comes (1949–1951)......Page 269
41. Are You Writing, Are You Writing Even Now? The One Who Was Standing Apart from Me (1951–1953)......Page 276
42. The Critical Detour: A Few Articles of Literary Criticism (1950–1951)......Page 281
43. The Author in Reverse: The Birth of The Space of Literature (1951–1953)......Page 286
44. Always Already (The Poetic and Political Interruption of Thought): Toward The Book to Come (1953–1958)......Page 295
45. Of an Amazing Lightness: The Last Man (1953–1957)......Page 305
46. Grace, Strength, Gentleness: Meeting Robert Antelme (1958)......Page 312
47. In the Gaze of Fascination: The Return to Paris (1957–1958)......Page 316
48. Refusal, II. In the Name of the Anonymous: The 14 Juillet Project (1958–1959)......Page 318
Part V 1960–1968......Page 328
49. Note That I Say “Right” and Not “Duty”: The Declaration on the Right to Insubordination in the Algerian War (1960)......Page 330
50. Invisible Partners: The Project for the International Review (1960–1965)......Page 339
51. Characters in Thought: How Is Friendship Possible? (1958–1971)......Page 351
52. Act in Such a Way That I Can Speak to You: Awaiting Oblivion (1957–1962)......Page 357
53. The Thought of the Neuter: Literary and Philosophical Criticism—the Entretien and the Fragment (1959–1969)......Page 364
54. A First Homage: The Special Issue of Critique (1966)......Page 377
55. Between Two Forms of the Unavowable: The Beaufret Affair (1967–1968)......Page 385
56. The Far Side of Fear: Political Disillusionment (May 1968)......Page 390
Part VI 1969–1997......Page 402
57. Life Outside: The Step Not Beyond, a Journal Written in the Neuter (1969–1973)......Page 404
58. Friendship in Disaster: Distance, Disappearance (1974–1978)......Page 418
59. The Last Book: The Writing of the Disaster (1974–1980)......Page 421
60. Forming the Myth: Readings and Nonreadings (1969–1979)......Page 431
61. Making the Secret Uncomfortable: Blanchot’s Readability and Visibility (1979–1997)......Page 439
62. With This Break in History Stuck in One’s Throat: The Unavowable Community (1982–1983)......Page 450
63. Even a Few Steps Take Time: Literature and Witnessing (1983–1997)......Page 460
Amor: Blanchot since 2003......Page 480
Acknowledgments......Page 494
Notes......Page 496
Bibliography......Page 614
Index......Page 620
