The eroticization of distance: Nietzsche, Blanchot, and the legacy of courtly love

169 Pages·2016·5.173 MB·English

by  Rowman and Littlefield.;Blanchot, Maurice;Kuzma, Joseph D.;Nietzsche, Friedrich

The Eroticization of Distance

The Eroticization of Distance
Nietzsche, Blanchot, and
the Legacy of Courtly Love
Joseph D. Kuzma
LEXINGTONBOOKS
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Names:Kuzma,JosephD.,author.
Title:Theeroticizationofdistance:Nietzsche,Blanchot,andthelegacyofcourtlylove/JosephD.
Kuzma.
Description:Lanham:LexingtonBooks,2016.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016025303|ISBN9781498524384(cloth:alk.paper)|ISBN9781498524391
(electronic)
Subjects:LCSH:Blanchot,Maurice.|Courtlylove.|Erotica.|Nietzsche,FriedrichWilhelm,1844-
1900--Influence.
Classification:LCCB2430.B574K892016|DDC194--dc23LCrecordavailableathttps://
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Contents
Introduction vii
1 CourtshipandDespondency 1
2 NietzscheandtheEcstasyofTransmogrification 21
3 Nietzsche’sRehabilitationofEroticDistance 45
4 Blanchot’sEroticizationofDistance 71
5 Déchirement,Sacrifice,andRefusal 87
6 ImpersonalIntimacyandtheRuinsofShatteredTime 103
Conclusion:“ThisBeatingofaHesitantHeart” 127
Bibliography 141
Index 149
AbouttheAuthor 153
v

Introduction
Some four hundred meters above the unbroken azure of the Mediterra-
nean coast, the narrowest of paths leads one upwards, around spires of
erodedrockandboulder,tothewallsofamedievalvillageperchedatop
thesummit.Thepathitselfisnotonlysteepbuttreacherous—carvedout
overmanyhundredsofyears,itonceledmulesladenwithcargo,rather
precariously, from the port below to the gates of a chateau whose ruins
still overlook the sea with a bruised, yet defiant, stateliness. A fort in
Roman times, the town fell to the advancing Moors in the year 900, and
the evidence of Moorish influence upon the town’s architecture and de-
sign remains, to this day, clearly discernible. The village’s streets are
narrow winding pathways adorned uniformly with flowering vines and
greenery;itsbuildingsareornamentedwithredbrickandterracottaroof
tiles. Automobiles and electric signs are nowhere to be found here. The
villageexistsasifinastateoftimelessness,disengagedfromtheprevail-
ingflowofhistory.
Itwashere,toamodesthouseontheRuedeBournou,inthevillageof
Èze, that the writer Maurice Blanchot withdrew in November 1946. In a
smallroom overlookingtheCapeFerratandthevast,shippingchannels
oftheMediterranean,hewouldwrite,overthenextdecade,someofhis
mostimportantcriticalessaysandliterarytexts.Thechoiceoflocalewas
significant.Somesixtyyearsprior,athinkerwell-knowntoBlanchothad
similarly sought convalescence along this stretch of French coastline.
“ManyspotsandheightsinthecountrysidearoundNicehavebeensanc-
tified for me through unforgettable moments [unvergessliche Augen-
blicke],” Nietzsche tells us in Ecce Homo, “that decisive section [of Thus
SpokeZarathustra]whichbearsthetitle‘OntheOldandNewTables’was
composed during the arduous ascent from the station to the marvelous
MoorishrockyhauntofÈze.”1
Morestrikingthanthegeographicalconfluence,however,isathemat-
ic one. It was amidst the silent companionship of these rocks and boul-
dersthatNietzschecametodevelop,inthewinterof1883-1884,PartIIIof
Zarathustra,thatsectionofthetextdealingmostcentrallywithquestions
of time and eternity, love and longing. It is this portion of the text that
featuresZarathustra’svariousabortiveeffortsatarticulatingthethought
ofeternalrecurrence,andconcludeswithZarathustra’scourtshipofeter-
nityand his joyfulaffirmation oferoticforbearance.Thoughatleastone
preeminentscholar,inrecentyears,hasarguedthatBlanchot’smostsub-
vii
viii Introduction
stantive engagements with Nietzsche’s thought do not emerge until the
writer'sreturntoParisinthelate1950s,Iwanttosuggestthat,onissues
pertaining to relationality, love, and desire, the influence of Nietzsche’s
thoughtcanbeseentoassertitselfmuchearlierwithinBlanchot’stexts.2
In this book, I am interested in documenting the specific conception of
eroticizeddistancethatemergesinNietzsche’smaturephilosophy,andis
later reinscribed and radicalized in Blanchot’s writings of the 1940s and
early1950s.
THEARGUMENT
Few experiences are more universal to the human condition than the
obdurate pulsing of erotic desire. Within the Western tradition, there
have been, in essence, two differing ways of thinking about this experi-
ence.Inaccordancewithoneway,desireisconstruedteleologically.Itis
directedtowardsomeoutcometobeachieved,somegoaltobemet,some
thresholdtobereached.Indesiring,weenvisionanobjectthatwebelieve
ourselves to lack, and we strive to acquire it, know it, or become “one”
with it. Distance invariably comes to be denigrated within this way of
thinking, perhaps even cursed, on account of its role in delaying the
moment of eventual satisfaction. Distance is what keeps up apart from
what we seek. We desire, at very moment, to close the gap, to suppress
distance,inordertodrawnearertotheobjectinquestion.Itmatterslittle
whethertheobjectisdivineorcarnal,realorimagined.Ineachcase,this
way of thinking makes the distance that separates us from the desirable
objecttheenemyoffulfillment.
There is, however, another way of thinking about desire. Whereas
traditional accounts of eroticism, throughout philosophy and the arts,
havetendedtoemphasizeproximity,consummation,fusion,orreleaseas
the goals toward which erotic longing ultimately strives, I argue that
Nietzscheseekstorehabilitatetheverynotionoferoticdistanceitselfby
liberating it from all subordination to teleological ideals. Nietzsche sees
erotic separation not as a circumstance to be gradually overcome in the
name of some form of ultimate fulfillment; but rather, as something
“higher than any reconciliation” and thus worthy of valorization in its
ownright.
WhatmotivatesNietzschetorethinkeroticisminthismanner?Inthis
book,IarguethataprimaryimpetuscanbelocatedinNietzsche’sfasci-
nationwiththepracticesandprotocolsoftwelfthcenturycourtlylove.It
waswithinthissocioculturalcontextthateroticdistancecametoassume,
for the first time in Occidental culture, an incomparably elevated status.
ThatNietzscheadmiredtheProvençaltroubadours,thosepractitionersof
courtly love, and even considered them his true “kindred spirits,”3 is
well-known—butIwanttosuggestthattheirinfluenceuponhisthinking