tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post6147051160456483978..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: Reading The Space of Literature (iii)Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-43776742034816802012008-09-10T10:09:00.000-04:002008-09-10T10:09:00.000-04:00Monash University presented a colloquium a few yea...Monash University presented a colloquium a few years back titled Blanchot, The Obscure.<BR/><BR/>All papers presented at the colloquium are available in PDF to read, print or download. Select one or all from Issue Ten on the linked page. I printed the entire set in under an hour.<BR/><BR/>http://colloquy.monash.edu.au/archives.html<BR/><BR/>From the Colloquy Editorial:<BR/><BR/>"There is an element of obscurity in the title of this special issue of Col-loquy: .Blanchot, the Obscure.. That element is due to the comma between the proper name and the adjective. Thus, .the Obscure. cannot be a straightforward epithet of the person or the work of the French author and critic Maurice Blanchot. Rather, the comma is meant to indicate a type of relationality that pertains between Blanchot and the obscure . moreover, an undecidable relationality. Thus, in this relation neither the name .Blanchot. nor the adjective .obscure. are to be approached with a pre-established security about their origin and destination. The comma indicates the fragile moment of hesitation before this conjunction of name and attribute." <BR/><BR/>Titles of articles and authors are:<BR/><BR/>Blanchot and Leiris<BR/>Christophe Bident<BR/><BR/>Forgetting to Remember: From Benjamin to Blanchot<BR/>Amresh Sinha<BR/><BR/>"Counter-time": A Non-dialectical Temporality in the Works of Maurice Blanchot<BR/>Zoltán Popovics<BR/><BR/>Dying is not Death: The Difference between Blanchot's Fiction and Hegel's Concept<BR/>James Phillips<BR/><BR/>Bare Exteriority: Philosophy of the Image and the Image of Philosophy in Martin Heidegger and Maurice Blanchot<BR/>Emanuel Alloa<BR/><BR/>Timelessness and Negativity in Awaiting Oblivion: Hegel and Blanchot in Dialogue<BR/>Rhonda Khatab<BR/><BR/>The Measure of the Outside<BR/>Anthony Abiragi<BR/><BR/>Writing the Disaster: Testimony and The Instant of My Death <BR/>Jennifer Yusin<BR/><BR/>Man is the Indestructible: Blanchot's Obscure Humanism<BR/>John Dalton<BR/><BR/>Nathalie's Rotunda: Breaching the Threshold of Maurice Blanchot's L'Arrêt de mort <BR/>Hél ène Frichot<BR/><BR/>Sacred Atheism: Pre-Empting Death by Prolonging Death Sentence<BR/>Louise Gray<BR/><BR/>Woman as the Face of God: Blanchot, Lacan and the Feminine Impossible<BR/>Peter Gunn<BR/><BR/>Two Essays by Blanchot on Hölderlin <BR/>Mark Hewson<BR/><BR/>The Subject of Narration: Blanchot and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw<BR/>Caroline Sheaffer-Jones<BR/><BR/>Ill Seen Ill Said: Interpreting the World<BR/>Evin O'Riordain<BR/><BR/>The Blanchot/Beckett Correspondence: Situating the Writer/Writing at the Limen of Naught<BR/>Curt G. Willits<BR/><BR/>In Other Words: Writing Maurice Blanchot Writing<BR/>Nikolai Duffy<BR/><BR/>"An Outstretched Hand…": From Fragment to Fragmentary<BR/>Leslie Hill<BR/><BR/>Thanks again for the great blog!<BR/><BR/>Diana ManisterDiana Manisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18337577356237998370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-46538920215272515072008-05-30T10:10:00.000-04:002008-05-30T10:10:00.000-04:00Thanks, Lars. (I think; I've been afraid that some...Thanks, Lars. (I think; I've been afraid that something like what you're recommending would be necessary, though I've received conflicting reports...)Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-7940650943715877242008-05-30T04:17:00.000-04:002008-05-30T04:17:00.000-04:00On my old copy of The Space of Literature, bought ...On my old copy of The Space of Literature, bought back in the 90s, I wrote 'Blanchot's point is not difficult to grasp. Willful obscurity. Tendency to obfuscate and cover his traces. Repeats central concerns like a litany. No acknowledgment the origins of his ideas. This book becomes sheer esoterica.' At the same time, I was completely fascinated, coming to Blanchot originally through an enigmatic quotation in a bad biography of Foucault (Miller)! <BR/><BR/>Hard to reconcile! In the end, I think in order to grasp the central ideas of the books an acquaintance with Heidegger is necessary (the later Heidegger: see Timothy Clark's book on him), as is a rough awareness of Hegel. I don't know if this book (or The Infinite Conversation) can be understood even in a general sense without some background in philosophy. <BR/><BR/>This also goes for the collections of essays (The Work of Fire, The Book to Come, Friendship): although they seem much more approachable, it is again a particular philosophical position that they reflect.<BR/><BR/>The Timothy Clark book is very approachable, however, and is aimed at readers interested in literature/ literary criticism. Blanchot is not a Heideggerian, not really, though often draws on Heideggerian terminology. Crucial to understand his relationship with Heidegger is his long term friendship with Levinas. This is explored in Haase and Large's book on Blanchot in the same series as the Clark book.Larshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13916670899439895186noreply@blogger.com