The Writing of the DisasterModern history is haunted by the disasters of the century--world wars, concentration camps, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust--grief, anger, terror, and loss beyond words, but still close, still impending. How can we write or think about disaster when by its very nature it defies speech and compels silence, burns books and shatters meaning? The Writing of the Disaster reflects upon efforts to abide in disaster's infinite threat. First published in French in 1980, it takes up the most serious tasks of writing: to describe, explain, and redeem when possible, and to admit what is not possible. Neither offers consolation. Maurice Blanchot has been praised on both sides of the Atlantic for his fiction and criticism. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas once remarked that Blanchot's writing is a "language of pure transcendence, without correlative." Literary theorist and critic Geoffrey Hartman remarked that Blanchot's influence on contemporary writers "cannot be overestimated." |
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absence absolute affirmation alèthéia already ambiguity answer Auschwitz Bartleby the Scrivener becomes bereft Blanchot called cease child comes cosmic death demand desire dialectic difference disappear disaster dying effacement Emmanuel Levinas enigma Ereignis Eric Weil escapes eternal eternal philosophy etymology everything experience exposed expression forgetfulness fragment fragmentary Georges Bataille Gérard Genette gift gives Greek language Gulag happen Hegel Heidegger Heraclitus immemorial impossible inasmuch infinite insomnia intensity interruption irony knowledge language Levinas live longer loss madness Messiah multiple myth Narcissus negation negative neutral never Nietzsche night nonetheless obsession oneself ourselves Ovid passivity past patience perhaps philosophy Plato possibility precisely present presupposes question refusal relation René Char repetition responsibility rhythm secret seems sense sentence separate sheer silence simply sovereignty speak suffering suicide thereby things thought transcendence translated truth turn un-power unity utterly wake Whence wherein word writing