The Blanchot Reader (1995)
Preface, vii
Acknowledgements, ix
Introduction, 1
Part I: How is Literature Possible?, 17
1 The Silence of Writers (1941), 25
2 The Search for Tradition (1941), 29
3 The Beginning of a Novel (1938), 33
4 The Recent Novel (1941), 35
5 The Pure Novel (1943), 38
6 Mallarmé and the Art of the Novel (1943), 43
7 How is Literature Possible? (1943), 49
8 The Novel is a Work of Bad Faith (1947), 61
9 Sade’s Reason (1947), 74
Part II: The Turning-Point,101
10 Madness par excellence, (1951), 110
11 Artaud (1951), 129
12 The Disappearance of Literature (1953), 136
13 The Pursuit of the Zero Point (1953), 143
14 The Death of the Last Writer (1955), 151
15 The Great Hoax (1958), 157
16 Essential Pewrversion (1958), 167
17 On a Change of Epoch (1960), 174
Part III: Our Responsibility, 183
18 The Right to Insubordination (1960), 196
19 Disorderly Words (1968), 200
20 Intellectuals under Scrutiny (1984), 206
21 The Indesctructible, 228
(i) Being Jewish (1962), 228
(II) Humankind (1962), 235
22 “Do Not Forget (1988), 245
Part IV: The Step Beyond, 253
23 The Name Berlin (1961), 266
24 The Conquest of Space (1961), 269
25 Waiting (1959), 272
26 The Exigency of Return (1969), 279
27 The Exigency of Return (1970), 290
28 Oh All to end (1990), 298
29 The Ease of Dying (1969), 301
30 Thanks (Be Given) to jacques Derrida (1990), 317
Blanchot in English, by Peter C. Hoy, 324
Index, 327
The Infinite Conversation (1968)
Note, xi
Foreword. “This Double Exigency: Naming the Possible, Responding to the Impossible,” Susan Hanson, xxv
Translator’s Acknowledgements, xxxv
(the speech of writing)
I. Thought and the Exigency of Discontinuity, 3
II. The Most Profound Question, 11
1. 11
2. 14
3. 17
III. Speaking Is not Seeing
IV. The Great Refusal, 33
1. 33
2. How to discover the obscure? 40
V. Knowledge of the Unknown, 49
VI. Keeping to Words, 59
VII. The Relation of the Third Kind (man without horizon), 66
VIII. Interruption (as on a Riemann surface), 75
IX. A Plural Speech, 80
I. Heraclitus, 85
II. Measure, the Suppliant, 93
III. Tragic Thought, 96
IV. Affirmation (desire, affliction), 106
1. 106
2. 114
V. the Indestructible, 123
1. Being Jewish, 123
2. Humankind
VI. Reflections on Nihilism, 136
1. Nietzsche, today, 136
2. Crossing the line, 143
3. Nietzsche and fragmentary writing, 151
VII. Reflections on Hell, 171
1. 171
2. Logical victory over “the absurd”, 182
3. You can kill that man, 182
4. Orpheus, Don Juan, Tristan, 187
VIII. Forgetting, Unreason, 194
On forgetting, 194
The great confinement, 196
IX. The Limit-Experience, 202
1. Affirmation and the passion of negative thought, 202
2. The play of thought, 211
3. Insurrection, the madness of writing, 217
X. The Speech of Analysis, 230
XI. Everyday Speech, 238
XII. Atheism and Writing. Humanism and the Cry, 246
1. 246
2. 257
XIII. On a Change of Epoch. The Exigency of Return, 264
(the neutral, the fragmentary)
I. The Final Work, 285
II. Cruel Poetic Reason (the rapacious need for flight) , 293
III. René Char and the Thought of the Neutral, 298
IV. The Fragment Word
V. Forgetful Memory, 314
VI. Vast as the night, 318
VII. Words Must Travel Far, 326
VIII. Wittgenstein’s Problemn, 332
Flaubert, 332
Roussel, 336
IX. A rose is a rose . . ., 339
X. Ars Nova, 345
XI. The Athenaeum, 351
XII. The Effect of Strangeness, 360
XIII. The End of the Hero, 368
XIV. The Narrative Voice (the “he,” the neutral), 379
XV. The Wooden Bridge (repetition, the neutral), 388
XVI. Literature One More Time, 397
XVII. Tomorrow at Stake, 407
XVIII. The Absence of the Book, 422
Notes, 437
Index, 465
The Space of Literature (1955)
Translator’s Introduction, 1.
I
The Essential Solitude, 19
II
Approaching Literature’s Space, 35
Mallarmé’s Experience, 38
III
The Work’s Space and Its Demand, 49
The Work and the Errant Word, 51
Kafka and the Work’s Demand, 57
IV
The Work and Death’s Space, 85
Death as Possibility, 87
The Igitur Experience, 108
Rilke and Death’s Demand:, 120
1. The Search for a Proper Death, 121
2. Death’s Space, 133
3. Death’s Transmutation, 146
V
Inspiration, 161
The Outside, the Night, 163
Orpheus’s Gaze, 171
Inspiration, Lack of Inspiration, 177
VI
Communication and the Work, 189
Reading, 191
Communication, 198
VII
Literature and the Original Experience 209
The future and the Question of Art, 211
Characteristics of the Work of Art, 221
The Original Experience, 234
Appendixes, 249
The Essential Solitude and Solitude in the World, 251
The Tow Versions of the Imaginary, 254
Sleep, Night, 264
Hölderlin’s Itinerary, 269
Index, 277
Vicious Circles
(1985)
the idyl, 1
the last word, 37
POSTFACE
«after the fact», 57
The Work of Fire (1949)
Translator’s Note, ix
Reading Kafka, 1
Kafka and Literature, 12
The Myth of Mallarmé, 27
Mysery in Literature, 43
The Paradox of Aytré, 61
The Language of Fiction, 74
Reflections on surrealism, 85
René Char, 98
The “Sacred” Speech of Hölderlin, 111
Baudelaire’s Failure, 132
From Lautréamont to Miller
Translated From . . ., 176
The Novels of Sartre, 191
A Note on Malraux, 208
Gide and the Literature of Experience, 212
Adolphe, or the Misfortune of True Feelings, 226
Gazes from Beyond the Grave, 244
Pascal’s hand, 256
Valéry and Faust, 271
On Nietzsche’s side, 287
Literature and the Right to Death
Michel Foucault as I Imagine Him
(1986)
(A few personal words . . .), 63
“A Man in Danger,” 67
“The Farewell to sTructuralism,” 69
“The Imperative of Discontinuity,” 73
“Knowledge, Power Truth?,” 79
“From subjection to the Subject,” 83
“Inner Conviction,” 89
“Who is Me today?,” 93
“Society of Blood, Society of Knowledge,” 95
“Murderous Racism,” 99
“The Insistence on Speaking About Sex,” 103
“Oh My Friends,” 107
Back
Friendship
(1971)
1. The Birth of Art, 1
2. The Museum, Art, and Time, 12
3. Museum Sickness, 41
4. Museum of Encyclopedias, 50
5. Translating, 57
6. The Great Reducers, 62
7. Man at Point Zero, 73
8. Slow Obsequies, 83
9. On One Approach to Communism, 93
10. Marx’s Three Voices, 98 11. The Apocalypse is Disappointing, 101
12. War and Literature, 109
13. Refusal, 111
14. Destroy, 113
15. Idle Speech, 117
16. Battle with the Angel, 129
17. Dreaming, Writing, 140
18. The Ease of Dying, 149
19. The Laughter of the Gods, 169
20. A Note on Transgression, 183
21. The Detour Toward Simplicity, 188
22.The Fall: The Flight, 201
23. The Terror of Identification, 208
24. Traces, 217
25. Gog and Magog, 228
26. Kafka and Brod, 240
27. The Last Word, 252
28. The Very Last Word, 265
29. Friendship, 289
Notes, 293