STATION HILL BLANCHOT READER

278 Pages·1995·72.79 MB·English

by  Maurice Blanchot

THE STATION HILL BLANCHOT READE
is the only collection in English of Maurice Blancbot's mature fiction
the unique genre he called recits (tellings, narratives)-as well as a selectio{l
of literary/philosophical writings drawn from five of his major works. ft
brings together seven ofB lanchet' s eight Station Hill books published ove;r
the past twenty years: Vicious Circles, Thomas the Obsci~re. Death Sentence, The
Madness of the Day, When The Time Comes, Tire One Who Was Standing Apa(l
From Me, and ten of the eleven essays from The Gaze of Orpheus and Otho/'
Literary Essays.
The cumulative and multiple force of the literary works gathered in this co
lection- ...a force, at times, that one associates with sacred texts or forms f
mythopoicsis, a clarity, at other moments, that carries a sovereign humor t
grips with the impossible ... - will reinforce, even multiply the strangends
of each of the singular events of writing it presents.
Christopher Fynsk, FROM THE FOREWOJ
Of the small number of unimpeachably major, original voices in moder
French literature, that of Maurice Blanchot has waited longest to find a
audience in English. Station Hill is performing a great service by bringin
I
out Blanchot's enthralling fiction and essays.
Susan Sontag
cri~
Maurice Blanchet has produced an astonishing body of fiction and
cism .... To enter [his] fiction is to enter a precarious world that asserts its
freedom from the comfort and deadening habitualization of mimesis .
. . .B eautifully translated.
Gilbert Sorrentino, The New York Times Book Revidv
Blanchot's prose gives an impression, like HenryJ ames'. ofc arrying mca~
ings so fragile they might crumble in transit ... [and] claims to contain somel
thing wonderful, a treasure not so unlike, perhaps, the beekeeper's defia t
courage in the face of pain.
John Updike, The New York r
Blanchot's power as a writer pierces, like a look that is too direct, the ind -
terminate prose, and makes all relations, and especially our relation to tim ,
absolutely precarious.
Geoffrey Hartman, The Georgia Revic
1
ISBN: 1-886449-17• 1
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11n1
1
THE STATION HILL
BLANCH
OT
READER
•
Fiction & Literary Essays
Maurice Blanchot
Lydia Davis
TRANSLATED BY
Paul Auster and Robert Lamberton
Christopher Fynsk
FOREWORD BY
AFTERWORD BY George Quasha & Charles Stein
George Quasha
EDITED BY
STATION HILL
BARRYTOWN. LTD.
CONTENTS
This edition copyrighr © 1999 by Srarion Hill Press, fnc./Barryrown. Lrd.
Copyrighr ©for the original French editions are held by Editions Gallimard, Edi
A cknowledge111e11 ts Vl
tions de Minuir and Editions Fara Morgana as listed on the Acknowledgements page.
Foreword Copyright© 1999 by Christopher Fynsk List ef Translatio11s by Translator vu
Afterword Copyright© 1999 by George Quasha and Charles Stein PUBLISHER'S PREFACE lX
T r:mslacion copyright is held by the ttanslators in their original publications and© 1999 FOREWORD by Christopher Fynsk xv
All rights reserved. No part oft his book may be reproduced or utilized in any form FICTION
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or FROM Vicious Circles: Two Fictions & "After the Fact" 3
by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, withom permission in writing from
The Idyll 5
the publisher.
The Last Word 35
Published under the Station Hill Arts imprint ofBarrytown. Lrd. in conjunction Thomas the Obscure 51
with Station Hill Press, fnc., Barrytown, New York 12507, as a project ofThe Death Sentence 129
Institute for Publishing Arcs, fnc., a nor-for-profit, federally tax exempt, educa
The Madness of The Day 189
tional organization.
When the Time Comes 201
Online catalogue and purchasing: http://www.stationhiU.org The One Who Was Standing Apart From Me 261
E-mail: [email protected]
LITERARY ESSAYS
1:3ook design and typesetting by Chic Hasegawa with assistance from Susan Quasha The Gaze of Orpheus and Other Literary Essays
FROM
Cover design by Susan Quasha
From Dread to Language 343.
Grateful acknowledgement is due to the National Endowment for the Ans, a Fed Literature and the Right to Death 359
eral agency in Washington, DC, and to the New York Stare Council on the Arts for
The Essential Solitude 401 ·
partial financial support of the publishing program ofThe Institute for Publishing
Two Versions of the Imaginary 417
Arts and oft he individual books in this collection in their original Station Hill Press
publication, as well as supporcofsome oft he translations. Reading 429
The Gaze of Orpheus 437
Library ofC ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Song of the Sirens 443 .
l:31anchor, Maurice.
The Power and the Glory 451
[Selections. English. 1998]
The Narrative Voice 459 •
The Station Hill Blanchot reader: fiction & literary essays/ by Maurice
Blanchor; edited by George Quasha; translated by Lydia Davis, Paul Auster, The Absence of the Book 471
&by R Goeboerrgte L Qamuabsehrato &n ;C Fhoarerlweso Srdte biny .C hristopher Fynsk; publisher's afterword FROM Vicious Circles: Two Fictions & "After the Fact"
p. cm. After the Fact 487
ISBN 1-886449-17-1
Translators' otes 497
I. Quasha, George. II. Davis, Lydia. HI. Auster, Paul,
Lamberton, Robert. V. Title. 1947-. IV. A f-TER WORD: P11blisl1i11.~ Bla11choc ;,, A 111erica-A Metapoetic View 509
PQ2603.L3343A6 1998 by George Q11asha a11d Charles Scei11
843'.912-dc21 Biographical Notes 528
<l 9 :t. n o 5 fl Other Bocks i11 English by Ma11rice Bla11cl1ot 529
LIST OF TRANSLATIONS
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY
TRANSLATOR
Graceful acknowledgement is due co the following publishers for the
right co translate and publish works of Maurice 8lanchot in English:
Paul Auster
EDITIONS GALLIMARD
Thomas /'obswr, copyright© 1941 by Editions Gallimard. Vicious Circles: Two Fictions & "After the Fact"
L'Arrer de mort, copyright© 1948 by Editions Gallimard. IDYLL
A11 momem rxm/11, copyright© 1951 by Editions Gallimard. LAST WORD
Ce/11i q11i ne m 'accompagnait pas, copyright© 1953 by Editions Gallimard. After the Fact
The translations of the essays from The Gaze of Orpheus arc based on the
French editions copyright © 1943, 1949, 1955, 1959, 1969 by Edi Robert Lamberton
tions Gallimard, as follows: Thomas The Obscure
"De 1' Angoisse au langage" fromFa11x Pas (1943); "Litterature et le droic
a
la more" from La Part du jeu (1949); "La Solitude essentielle," "Le Lydia Davis
Regard d'Orphee," "Lire," and "Les Deux Versions de l'imaginaire"
Deat h Sentence
from L'Espace litteraire (1955); "Le Chant des Sirenes" and "La Puis
The Madness of The Day
a
sance et la gloire" from Le Livre venir (1959); "La Voix narrative"
When the Time Comes
and "L'Absence du livre" from L'Entretien infi11i (1969).
The One Who Was Standing Apart From Me
EDITIONS DE MINUIT
Le Ressassement heme/, copyright © 1951 and as Apres co11p © 1983 by FROM The Gaze of Orpheus and Other Literary Essays:
Editions de Minuit.
"From Dread to Language"
EDITIONS FATA M ORGANA "Literature and the Right to Death"
La Folie du jo11r, copyright© 1973 by Editions Fata Morgana. "The Essential Solitude"
Copyright for the English translations is as follows: "Two Versions of the Imaginary"
Tl1omas the Obsc11re copyright© 1973, 1988, 1999 by Robert Lamberton, "Reading"
1
published by arrangement with David Lewis, Inc. "The Gaze of Orpheus"
Vicious Circle: Two Fictions & ''After the Fact," copyright© 1985, 1999 by "The Song of the Sirens"
Paul Auster.
"The Power and the Glory"
Death Sentence, copyright© 1978, 1998, 1999 by Lydia Davis.
"The Narrative Voice"
The Madness of the Day, copyright© 1981, 1999 by Lydia Davis.
"The Absence of the Hook"
Wl1en the Time Comes, copyright© 1985, 1999 by Lydia Davis.
The One Who Was Standing Apart From Me, copyright © 1993, 1999 by
Lydia Davis.
The Gaze of Orphe11s and Other Literary Essays, copyright© 1981, 1999 by
Lydia Davis.
Quotations from Hegel arc from A.V. Miller's translation, Plie110111c11ologyofSpiri1
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977).
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
The Station Hill Blanchot Reader comprises most of the books by
Maurice Blanchet chat Station Hill has published, and for us it is an
appropriate way of celebrating two decades of publishing. Death Sen
tence (1978) was, after all, the Press's first fulJ-length book. This fact
underscores the great significance Blanchet has had for us in the devel
opment of ourpublishingptogram, alJ the more so in light of the present
colJection. Editing this edition has given us the opportunicy to reread
and rethink an astonishing body of work. We have always expected
that, among the hundreds of books published, a certain number would
remain fresh; but we were frankly unprepared for how much the whole
ofl:3lanchot's work continuously reinvents itselfa ccording co one's own
capacicy for "further reading"-reading "beyond oneself" By the 111/iole
of his work we of course mean not only the books published at Station
Hill, but also the impressive number of his books to come into English
very soon after the first three-that is, after 1981. These three--Death
Sentetue, The Madness of the Day, and The Gaze of Orpheus and Other
Literary Essays-were the first books of Blanchet in English to go into
full trade distribution. Of these, the first cwo, along with Vicious Circles:
TuJO Fictions and "After the Fact" (1985), When the Time Comes (1985),
Thomas the Obsc11re (1988), and The One Who Was Standing Apart from
1
Me (1993), are fiction, essentially what Blanchet has called recits (trans
latable variously as tale, telling, narrative, story, even recital, but in any
case distinguished from novel).2
Thus most of the present book is in fact literary fiction, comprising
most of the works Blanchet directly characterized as recits. The Gaze of
Orpheus, most of which is reprinted here, is entirely non-fiction, what,
for convenience, we have called Ii terary essays. The two sections of this
book, Fiction and Literary Essays, are arranged chronologically accord
ing to date of first publication; the exception is the "two fictions" of
Vicious Circles, written in his 1935-36, so placed at the beginning here
(discussed by Blanchot in his 1983 essay, "After the Fact," the latest
text in the present book, placed at the end).3 Also somewhat excep
tional is The Madness of the Day, generally read in the 1973 version in
cluded here (Editions Fata Morgana), but arranged now according to
the date of its 1949 magazine publication under the title, "Un recit?"
IX
THE STATION HILL BLANCHOT READER PUULISI !ER'S PREFACE
Each piece in the book, fiction and non-fiction alike, stands alone as friends- has been for twenty years the background support oft he project
a literary work.~ The Station Hill Blanchot Reader is not a "thesis" book of publishing him. .
In the same spirit we feel indebted to the three remarkable vvnter/
except in our saying that these works deserve to be read each in its own
translators to whom our opportunity here to read Blanchet in English
right and as the literary instance of itself-each for its own particular
power. Such reading--rcading that stays, as it were, in the open, remain literally owes everything: Lydia Davis, Robert Lamberton, Paul Auster.
ing unencumbered by interpretation or contextualization- protects the In addition to graciously carrying out the notoriously hard work oft rans
free "space ofliterature" (in Blanchot's phrase) necessary for this work lating Blanchet-with celebrated brilliant results-they have always been
to be what it really is-work so tmly itself that it goes beyond itself. There supportive of each other's work and of the difficulties of independent
are many genuine ways of reading and interpreting Blanchot and the publishing. .
questions raised by his thought-deconstructive, historical/political, and Thanks are due to P. Adams Sitney for urging us in 1977 to publish
so forth, and indeed a number of excellent discussions are now avail Hlanchot, for editing The Gaze Orpheus and Other Literary Essays and for
able. But to enter a work by Blanchot armed from the start with a reading and helping revise the translations therein. On that book, Rob
5
critical perspective violates the free and inquiring nature of his self ert Lamberton generously served as translation text editor, "the book's
revolutional text. The text is first of all a mystery. It wants to be read essential critic" according to Lydia Davis. Paul Auster offered consulta
pure and simple-for which one can receive no wiser counsel than tion, and Michael Coffey brought his copyediting and proofreading skills
Blanchot's own essay "Reading." to the type in chat book.
At the same time, it is the right of (maybe even a necessity for) any Publishing at Station Hill has always been collaborative, as has edit-
true reader ofBlanchot to develop a working "theory of reading" the ing our series ofbooks by Maurice Blanchet." Many hands have touched
text. Certainly we have come to read him in a somewhat special way, these books in their making-too many to acknowledge more than a
which we sometimes think of as a poet's way, by way of poetics and, few individually: Patricia Nedds bravely printed the first few Blanchet
most especially, of metapoetics, the self-transformative. We mention this cities in our Open Studio Print Shop-at the beginning, when we
here to signal again Blanchot's importance for us in the context of Sta thought that we had to do everything ourselves. Susan Quasha, co
tion Hill's history and development, and also co point to our own state publisher from the beginning, co-designed most of the books. For the
ment laying out a meta poetic view-of the axial and the liminal-which present collection, Chic Hasegawa did the typesetting; Merabi Uridia
we have confined to an Afterword, "Publishing Blanchet in America." and Siu Yuen contributed to our collective proofreading of the book.
We have no wish to put our own view before the work itself The force Charles Stein has been my partner in every aspect of bringing this
of Blanchot's text in fact may be, to a truly extraordinary degree, its project to fruition, and of course he is co-author of the Afterword. To
power to generate readings, the plural voice in one's head that alone thank a true dialogical companion is curiously confusing, risking sepa
gives reading an ontological role like none other. ration in what is held in common.
We arc very grateful for Christopher Fynsk's Foreword which so There have been many grants of financial assistance along the way
spaciously prepares the ground for what follows. Like his own umg11age that made che preeminently non-commercial project of publishing
and Relation: ... that there is language, it puts us in a mind of realizing the Blanchet in America possible for a non-institutional, non-endowed,
barely audible urgency ofBlanchoc's invitation to read. We are person independent literary publisher. Some of Lydia Davis' translations re
ally graceful for Christopher Fynsk's support and gentle guidance in the ceived special translation grants from the New York State Council on
preparation of this book. the Arts. Her many months of work on The Gaze <if Orpheus were funded
To thank Maurice Blanchet at this point strains the performacivc under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of the De
value of words, yet the impulse is too strong co ignore. His generosity partment of Labor-certainly an unusual event in the history of public
perhaps the quality most frequently mentioned among his translators and funding. The production of ::ill of the individual books was in some
x XI
THE STATION HILL BLANCHOT READER l'UOLISHER'S PREFACE
measure funded by grants from the New York State Council on the
1 First published in 3 small hardback edition by David Lewis, Inc. in 1973.
Arts and the National Endowment for the Arcs. Our deeply felt
1 The defining instance i~ T110111as tire Obsmre, the first version ofw hich Blanchoc called a
acknowle?gcment goes to the adminjstrators and panelists who have
roman, the reduced (by ~VO-thirds) ve~ion a rkit-an ope11i11gofficcional form by retl11nio11.
stood ~ehmd ~son these projeccs. May the radiant presence ofBlanchot's Blanchot says the r&ir "is not the narration ofa n event. but that event it.~elf, the approach
work m En.ghsh be received as a credit to the responsible people and co chat event, the place where that event is made to happen''-narrative as perfon11a1ivc,
the responsive process behind public arts funding. moving. as it were. toward the condition of poetry. (Sec "The Song of the Sirens.")
Written in 1935-36, contemporaneously with the first version of Thomas tire Obs<un>
George Q11asha ( 1932-1940), the ··~vo fictions" of Vicious Circles may seem problematic in relation to the
Barrycown, New York distinction mit, which is the word u~cd for them in "After the Fact" (though the distinc
tion is noc emphasized in our translation).
' Note chat while the categoric~ fiction and non-fiction/essays break down quite thor
oughly as Blanchot's work develops, none of the problemacic later works, significantly
liminal co the two domains, is presented here.
•The one Station Hill Blanc hot book not represented here is Tire U11a1101vable Co111m1111ity
(1988). While immensely important as an inquiry into community and as a contribution
co Blanchoc's works in which chinking integrates historical/political/social/philosophical
focus, ic does not stand alone co che degree that the ochers included here do. Optimally ic
would be read in dialogue with the works it discusses ofGeol"boes Bataille,Jean-Luc Nancy
and Marguerite Duras.
5 For instance, Michael Holland's excellent collection, The Blan<hot Reader (Blackwell
Publisher!"., Led.: Oxford, 1995) . seeks "to situate its author squarely in his time." He aims,
adm.irably. co correct an imbalance in Blanchoc reading chat makes it appear "as if[the
writing) cook place out~ide time and cook no account of history." This view, however,
should stand in a dialogical relation with others, including the ocher end of the temporal
spectrum-the infinite, from which. accord.ing co Blanchot, all must also be viewed.
6 The designation '·editor" of chis Reader is not meant to overshadow the roles of the
others mentioned here. some ofw hom gave enormously oft heir time and energy. Perhaps
being ecliror means little more, in chi~ case, than feeling responsible, during ~vo decades.
for whatever could or did go wrong. The translators oft he fiction decided for themselves
what they would translate. Sitney chose the essays for Tire Gaze ofO rpheus. For my part,
I have always felt more instructed than instructing, especially by che agonizing/exhilarat
ing "editorial" reading ofa translation ab>ainsc Blanchot's original (most memorably. Tire
011e Wlro Was Sta11di11J? Apart from Me), or the process of"inventing" Blanchoc's tides in
English. The latter coo was collaborative--illum.inatingly. Scaring at our list ofd ozens of
possible rranslarions of"L e Rcssasscmeut Ctemel," Michael Coffey and I flashed on "Vicious
Circles" at virtually the same instant. (Blanchot. happily, expressed pleasure in the discov
ery.) Robert Kelly ended che impasse of another long list for '~u Moment vo11/11" "vich
"When the Time Comes."
xii
xiii
FOREWORD
To begin to define Maurice Blanchot's place in modern French let
ters, one must consider, in addition to the literary works, a newly avail
able body ofj ournalism and a vast range of literary and philosophical
meditations published over a period of sixty years-writings with an
extensive, but often indirect influence. One must consider the impor
tance of the friendships with Georges Bacaille and Emmanuel Levinas,
among ochers, and take into account the effects of his complex partici
pation in French public life (an always active participation, even in times
of withdrawal). The critical task is daunting, and it grows daily as the
lineaments ofBlanchot's activities are drawn into the historian's light.
But however many elements are gathered for the dossier, an appre
ciation of Blanchot's insistence in modern letters requires attention to
the strange force of his language. Indissociable from the fascinating power
of any Blanchotian theme or critical motif (the author's Orphic quest,
for example, or the death that is the impossibility ofd ying) is the haunting
presence of a language that brings language itself into question as it
searches the borders of what can be said in its time. This language offers
itself everywhere in Blanchot's text. But when it is heard from the
multiple space of resonance created by Blanchot's own literary re
search-a series of singularly arresting textual events-one can begin to
appreciate the sway of Blanchot's presence in texts as marking for our
epoch as those ofJ acques Derrida, Michel Foucault or Jacques Lacan.
Only from the ground of such a relation to his language, in fact, can we
properly appreciate Blanchot's importance for a generation of French
poets, for the literary and cinematographic works of a Marguerite Ouras,
or, to leave the French context (as Blanchot's renown did long ago),
the thought of Hajime Tanabe, the literary criticism and theory of Paul
de Man, or the contemporary video art of Gary Hill. We can begin
then to understand how Jacques Derrida could ascribe to one of the
voices in his "Pas" the assertion that Blanchet remains far ahead of us:
"Waiting for us, still to come, to be read, to be reread by those who
have done so ever since they have known how to read, and thanks to
him."1
I believe it is fair to say that Station Hill Press- initially, and still to
this day in part, an artistic project- began from an assumption like the
xv
THE STATION HILL BLANCHOT READER FOREWORD
one I have offered concerning the place ofBlanchot's literary language ends with a veritable ducat co the reader), and an ostensive silence re
when it undertook co sponsor, in conjunction with a critical collection garding what has brought them forth or what they are (not) saying. In
edited by P. Adams Sitney (Tlze Gaze of Orplze11s), a series of admirable brief: Blanchot's literary writings have commanded a cautious respect
literary translations by Robert Lamberton (Tlzomas the Obscure), Lydia chat seems almost unmatched in modem criticism; the works have been
Davis (Death Sentence, The Madness of the Day, When the Time Comes, left alone.
and The One Who Was Standing Apart from Me), and Paul Auster (Vicious Does the present collection transgress in departing from this reserve?
Circles). The importance of chis initiative cannot be overestimated for Certainly-but perhaps not in a regrettable way. For while it is not
che reception of.Blanchoc in the English-speaking world. For while che easy co imagine these texts under the same cover, there is no basis for
latter reception has been somewhat isolated (a representation of post supposing that their proximity in a single volume will mute their po
war literature that takes its stare from Sartre has dominated the Ameri tential as singular events and efface their solitude. le could well serve,
can academy), it has been intense-shaped in an essential way by the on the contrary, to underscore the distances that open between chem
fact that English-speaking readers have been able to approach Blanchot's by virtue of the literary movements they share: their "common" en
critical and theoretical writings from the basis of an engagement with gagement of the interruptions proper to what Blanchot sometimes names
works of the order of Thomas the Obswre and Death Sentence. Thus, the a "speech," sometimes "saying," and, increasingly in his later work,
publication of a collection of Station Hill's translations is not an indif "writing." It could help co draw forth from each of the works (from
ferent event, and the question immediately arises: Will the present col their resonance, their interrupted rhythms, their folds) their exposure
lection, enabled by the growing recognition of.Blanchoc's place in mod of an "infinite" in language that both divides and relates them in their
em French thought, renew in some way Station Hill's contribution to differences from one another and from themselves. Blanchot would
t~e .reception ofB~anchot? What might we expect from chis new pub call the field of this exposure a "relation without relation"; borrowing
lishing venture, chis partial summary of Station Hill's past efforts? Will from BacailJe, he would call it a "communication" (without common
this remarkable compilation oflicerary, critical and "speculative" works terms). If such a communication is furthered by this collection, it will
by Blanchot serve the futurity co which Derrida has referred? reinforce not only the solitude of the textS, but also the questions that
In these prefatory words, I would like co suggest why it may indeed speak in chem, questions whose philosophical, political and ethical im
answer co that futurity by helping co change the very manner of reading port is in no way limited by the opacity of their origin.
Blanchot in the English-speaking world. My hope, at least, is chat its My hypothesis, in other words, is that the alignment of texts will
juxtapositions-startling, perhaps even unnerving for some who have help to bring forth in each of them, and between chem, a trace of the
lived with the individual volumes-will invite readers to entertain the "research" to which they belong, namely Blanchoc's unending, mul
relations between the works presented, and then prompt chem co con tiple engagement with what he terms the question of literature. This
sider their disruptive relations to a multiple set of histories: literary, volume will do more than make Blanchot's work more easily available
philosophical, political and biographical. Commentators have not failed or represent a significant portion of his literary accomplishments. In
to evoke such relations, but most have found it difficult to make seeps fact, it will do something quite different from what is traditionally ex
between the fictional works, or between those works and their histori pected of a "collection"; it will reinforce. even multiply the strange
cal sices.2 This is in pare because works like Deatlz Sentence and Tlie ness ofe ach oft he singular events ofw riting it presents, drawing forth in
Madness of the Day actively inhibit such steps. Their formal coherence this way the question of what is at stake in che fact that such texts
(if it may be called chat) defies any extant critical categories, while their exist-a question that cannot but lead far beyond the name "Blanchoc."
language, ~0th.limpid and strange, turns aside constantly from the "day" The last question appears in a "Note" to The Infinite Conversation
of referenc1al. nes. To these grounds of a forbidding solitude we muse that develops it in a way that is pertinent to what I would like to suggest
add an occasionally overt defiance {the first version of Death Sentence
xvi
XVII
TH!:. STATION HILL BLANCHOT READER FOREWORD
here. Beginning with a kind of history of this question, Blanchot ob fictional writings-once one has encountered it, chat is co say, in the
serves that, strangeness of their language: a force, at times, chat one associates with
sacred texts or forms of mythopoiesis, a clarity, at ocher moments, that
Since Mallarme ... there has come to light the experience of some
carries a sovereign humor at grips with the impossible, throughout a
thing one conrinues to call, but with a renewed seriousness, and
haunting presence and an enigmatic grace. "The words spoke alone,"
moreover, in quotation marks, "literature." Essays, novels, po
of
ems seem to be there and to be written only in order to allow the the narrator remarks in The Madness rlze Day. Once one has heard this
labor of literature ... to accomplish itself, and through this labor to speech and the silence that attends it, one cannot also help hearing a
let the question come forth: "What is at stake in the fact that some .. literary" pull in essays like "Literature and the Right to Death," a
thing like art or literature should exist?" theoretical and critical text that is also of the highest dialectical subtlety
and rigor in its exploration ofche "two versions of the imaginary." And
The question, he suggests, has been obscured by a secular tradition
one cannot then help hearing it elsewhere: in philosophy, or in any
of aestheticism. Nevertheless, he continues,
discourse that draws from what "speaks" in language. From rl1e facr of
language as it is presented by Blanchet, in ocher words, the question,
Lit:.rary wo~k and research-let us retain this qualifying "liter
"What is at stake in the fact that such texts exist?" leads into a general
ary -contribute to shake the principles and the truths sheltered
by literature. This work, in correlation with certain possibilities questioning about language itself, a questioning that cannot avoid the
offered by knowledge, by discourse and by political struggle, has problematic of writing as authors such as Heidegger and Derrida have
brought forth, though not for the first time ... the question of lan helped define it in their respective ways. From there, it is a small step
guage, and then, through the question of language. the question co the fundamental questions enumerated in the passage from Blanchot's
that perhaps ov:rrums it and comes together in the word, today "Note," including that of "another way of being in relation."
openly and easily allowed ... : writing, "this mad game of writ
Blanchet refers in his "Note," as we have seen, to "the exigency of
ing. "3
writing"-the genitive both subjective and objective. He refers else
. :·writing, the exigency of writing," devoted seemingly only to itself where, and with a more ethical inflection, to "the exigency of another
111 its slow emergence (so that it could be confused, we might add, with relation,"~ implying with the same ambiguity of the genitive and the
the fonnalist celebrations of literariness that have received renewed fa same notion of writ1ng that the relation in question both demands or
vor in the academy), has brought out "entirely other possibilities": forms "requires" and is required. What is chis relation? The reader will dis
of "being in relation" that carry in co the incommensurability of their cover its trace at the thematic level perhaps first in the arresting de
movements, "first the idea of God, of the Self, of the Subject, then of scriptions of an encounter with a radical alterity. Thomas, for example,
Truth and the One, then finally the idea of the Book and the Work." knows an endless becoming-ocher in exposure to what Blanchet names
near the end ofT/iomas rlze Obswre "the supreme relation." We wimess
En~ugh to get us all locked up (to recall The Madness of rhe Day). Bue this "knowledge" in scene after scene of this work: scenes of struggle,
such is the arc of questioning we might envision, one arc among the flight, or ab:indon, in each case involving the presence of an absence
~an.y that cannot be foreseen. And the spring for this movement of ques that Blanchet names in his more theoretical statements (and with
t10111ng, I w~uld like to emphasize, may be the cumulative and multiple LCvinas), the i/ y a. 'i But this knowledge is exhibited nowhere more
for~e.of t.he htera:y works gathered in this collection-a force that proves poignantly, perhaps, than in the opening of the monologue that follows
decisive. m breaking through the customary relation to "literature" and the account of Anne's agony, and in what Thomas does not fully bring
prompti.ng the reader to ask about the implications of the fact that such to speech: his relation co Anne's gift of her dying. Is his own "death" in
texts eXJst. I do not believe one can hear literary language in the same these pages not intimately bound to hers? The "knowledge" co which
way once one has encountered this question in and through Blanchot's I have referred, in any case, is a dying. as lllanchot chematizes it most
xviii XIX