Politics, Writing, Mutilation: The Cases of Bataille, Blanchot, Roussel, Leiris, and Ponge PDF
Preview Politics, Writing, Mutilation: The Cases of Bataille, Blanchot, Roussel, Leiris, and Ponge
Politics, Writing, Mutilation This page intentionally left blank Politics, Writing, Mutilation The Cases of Bataille, Blanchot, Roussel, Leiris, and Ponge Allan Stoekl UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges assistance provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for publication of this book. Copyright ® 1985 by the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press, 2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Stoekl, Allan. Politics, writing, mutilation. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. French literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Politics in literature. 3. Utopias in literature. 4. Modernism (Literature). I. Title. PQ307.P64S76 1985 840'.9'00912 85-8594 ISBN 0-8166-1299-4 ISBN 0-8166-1300-1 (pbk.) Chapter 1, "Politics, Mutilation, Writing," copyright ® 1984 by Allan Stoekl, is reprinted from Raritan 3, no. 3 (winter 1984) with permission of the author. Chapter 5, "Ponge's Photographic Rhetoric," copyright ® 1984 by the University of Wisconsin Press, is reprinted from Sub-Stance 41 (winter 1984) with the permission of the publisher. The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. D'autres sont rebelles a 1'angoisse. Us rient et chantent. Us sont innocents et je suis coupable. Mais que suis-je a leurs yeux? un intellectuel cynique, tortueux, malaise. Comment supporter d'etre lourd a ce point, odieux, meconnu? J'accepte, etonne de 1'exces. Bataille, Le Coupable This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Utopias of Conflict, Urtexts of Deconstruction xi CHAPTER ONE Politics, Mutilation, Writing 3 CHAPTER TWO Blanchot and the Silence of Specificity 22 CHAPTER THREE Roussel's Revivifications of History 37 CHAPTER FOUR Leiris's Unwritten Autobiography 51 CHAPTER FIVE Ponge's Photographic Rhetoric 70 CHAPTER six Betrayal in the Later Bataille 89 CHAPTER SEVEN Derrida, Foucault, and Their "Precursors" 104 CHAPTER EIGHT Reading Avant-Garde Utopias 124 Notes 135 Selected Bibliography 147 Index 757 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Paul de Man's interest and encouragement enabled me to write this book. It is dedicated to his memory. I also want to thank my editors Wlad Godzich and Lindsay Waters for their support of this project, and Vir- ginia Hans for her excellent copy editing. A. S.
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