W.Large The being of language: the literary theory of Maurice Blanchot

2005 ◽  
pp. 107-124
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Maurice Blanchot

Decreation and the Ethical Bind

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Sook Cha
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
Ethical Obligation ◽  
Novel Treatment ◽  
Theory And Criticism ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Subjective Agency ◽  
Continental Tradition

Decreation and the Ethical Bind identifies a decreative ethics, whereby self-dispossession underwrites an ethical obligation to preserve the other from harm. The author shows how obligation emerges at the conjuncture of competing claims: between the other’s subject affirmation and one’s own dislocation, between what one has and what one has to give, between a demand that asks for too much and the extraordinary demand of asking nothing. In the unfolding and reiteration of themes issuing from the other’s claim upon oneself develops a complex picture of the tensions that sustain the scene of ethical relationality. Just how these tensions both subtend and undercut an other-centered ethics of preservation is the question this book tarries with. By proposing a way to read the distinct ethical charge of the other’s claim not to be harmed, Decreation and the Ethical Bind offers a novel treatment of the concept of decreation in the thought of Simone Weil, putting her work in dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Blanchot and Judith Butler. In examining themes of ethical obligation, vulnerability and the force of weak speech, the present study places Weil within a continental tradition of literary theory in which writing and speech are bound up with questions of ethical appeal. It contributes a new and critical voice to the current conversation in theory and criticism that addresses a difficult form of ethics that isn’t grounded in subjective agency and narrative fruition, but in the risks taken to fulfill the claims it makes.

The being of language: The literary theory of Maurice Blanchot

1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-322
Author(s):  
W. Large
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Maurice Blanchot

Translation as influence: A dialogue between Maurice Blanchot’s literary theory and Lydia Davis’ short fiction

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
María Laura Arce Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Literary Space

The intention of this article is to analyse the intertextual influence between the American writer Lydia Davis and the French philosopher and critic Maurice Blanchot. This literary dialogue occurs as a result of Davis’ experience translating Blanchot’s most relevant critical and fictional texts. Davis’ role as a translator influenced her short fiction in which she discusses the limits of the literary space and therefore constantly challenges the genre as a way of fictionalizing Blanchot’s literary theory.

A Future for Theory?

Paragraph ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-153
Author(s):  
Leslie Hill
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
Striking Feature ◽  
The Future ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Shared Commitment

What is it that guarantees the truth of literary theory? And what is it that testifies to its survival into the future? This paper, intended primarily as a tribute to the work of Malcolm Bowie, examines some of the implications of Bowie's view that literary theory, rigorously applied, as in the case of psychoanalysis, was inseparable from its status as creative, productive, futural, perhaps even fictional performance. The paper considers these questions further in the context of that shared commitment to the neuter or the undecidable that is a striking feature of the writing on literature of Roland Barthes, Maurice Blanchot and Jacques Derrida, and which is also a way of thinking the futural possibilities and possible futures of theory.

scholarly journals Walter Benjamin e Roland Barthes às margens da escritura

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Derick Davidson Santos Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
The Common

Resumo: A noção de escritura, desenvolvida por teóricos como Roland Barthes,Jacques Derrida e Maurice Blanchot, no século XX, possui um lugar medular nateoria da literatura e na crítica literária. O presente trabalho propõe um cotejamento entre a teoria de Walter Benjamin e de Roland Barthes no que concerne à escritura. Tomando alguns traços principais da escritura, analisados por Barthes, em conjunto com o pensamento de Benjamin acerca da narração, do declínio da experiencia e de algumas obras da literatura moderna – como a obra de Proust– é possível elucidar de que forma a escritura, operando como um limiar (Schwelle), escapa à rigidez das fronteiras que separam o pessoal e o histórico, a ordem comum do individualismo, a experiência da vivência.Palavras-chave: Roland Barthes; Walter Benjamin; escritura; limiar.Abstract: The notion of writing, developed by theorists such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and Maurice Blanchot, in the 20th century, has a fundamental place when it comes to literary theory and literary criticism. This work proposes a collating between Walter Benjamin’s and Roland Barthes’ theory concerning writing. Taking some main features of writing, analyzed by Barthes, together with Benjamin’s thought about narration, the decline of experience and some modern literary works – such as Proust’s oeuvre – it is possible to elucidate how writing, working as a threshold (Schwelle), escapes from the rigidity of the borders that separate the personal and the historical, the common order and individualism, experience and “inner lived experience”.Keywords: Roland Barthes; Walter Benjamin; writing; threshold.

Toward a Foucauldian Literary Criticism

Poetics Today ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-499
Author(s):  
Ryan Devitt
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Georges Bataille ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
Marquis De Sade ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Friedrich Hölderlin

Abstract The article argues for the renewed relevance of Foucault's early essays on literature, written throughout the 1960s, given a return to anthropological reflection in so much literary theory today (especially through affect theory and “new” phenomenologies—both of which rely on older categories supplied by psychoanalysis). On one hand, Foucault reminds us of all the “warped and twisted forms of reflection” that arise from anthropological thought, with its assumptions regarding the “unthought” and the hidden structures of sense and perception. This same Foucault, on the other hand, is deeply engaged with literature; his writings on a range of authors—from Homer and Cervantes, to Friedrich Hölderlin and the Marquis de Sade, to Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot—constitute nothing less than an oeuvre. And yet, despite proposals to move beyond Foucauldian critique and its orthodoxy in literary studies today, hardly anything has been thought or said about this body of work in which Foucault, as David Carroll points out, “has the most to say about literature and language.” This lacuna is all the more surprising, since Foucault's early essays offer a rich and fruitful understanding of the being of literature as more than a limpid reflection of the body. In his reading of Bataille and Blanchot in particular, Foucault offers a unique vision of literature that is neither suspicious nor negative but that, in connection with his well-known critique of finitude, culminates in a hopeful call for openness.

Pandhawa Gubah sebagai Representasi Interaksi Metafisik Manusia Jawa dan Perbandingannya dengan Cheritera Pandawa Lima

Manuskripta ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Novarina Novarina
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Literary Study ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Research Objects ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Comparative Study

Abstract: This research is a comparative literary study that uses Malay and Javanese versions of Mahabarata text sources. The research objects used were the text edition of Pandhawa Gubah (PG) by Sudibjo Z. Hadisutjipto and the text of Cheritera Pandawa Lima (CPL) by Khalid Hussain. The research method used is descriptive-analysis method. In the comparative study used a comparative literary theory proposed by Endraswara (2011). The results of the text comparison reveal the similarities and differences in the image of Bima figures in the Javanese and Malay versions. The equation as a whole is that both texts contain the same heroic storyline and heroic character, Bima. In addition, Indian influence is still evident in the two texts seen from the nuances of Hinduism that exist in both texts. While the difference is seen in the events that accompany Bima's struggle in achieving his victory. Based on these similarities and differences, it can be seen that the authors attempt to represent the concept of metaphysical interactions vertically and horizontally expressed through PG text. --- Abstrak: Penelitian ini adalah satu kajian sastra bandingan yang menggunakan sumber teks Mahabarata versi Melayu dan Jawa. Objek penelitian yang digunakan adalah edisi teks Pandhawa Gubah (PG) karya Sudibjo Z. Hadisutjipto dan teks Cheritera Pandawa Lima (CPL) karya Khalid Hussain. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode deskriptif-analisis. Dalam telaah perbandingan digunakan teori sastra bandingan yang dikemukakan Endraswara (2011). Hasil perbandingan teks mengungkapkan adanya persamaan dan perbedaan citra tokoh Bima dalam versi Jawa maupun versi Melayu. Persamaan secara keseluruhan adalah kedua teks tersebut mengandung alur cerita kepahlawanan dan tokoh pahlawan yang sama yaitu Bima. Selain itu, pengaruh India masih tampak dalam kedua teks tersebut dilihat dari nuansa Hinduisme yang ada dalam kedua teks. Sementara perbedaannya tampak pada peristiwa-peristiwa yang menyertai perjuangan Bima dalam mencapai kemenangannya. Berdasarkan persamaan dan perbedaan tersebut tampak adanya upaya penulis untuk merepresentasikan konsep interaksi metafisik secara vertikal dan horizontal yang diungkapkan melalui teks PG.

Translating Deleuze: On the Uses of Deleuze in a Non-Western Context

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-329
Author(s):  
Yu-lin Lee
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
East West ◽  
Critical Aspects

This paper aims to explore the appropriation of Deleuzian literary theory in the Chinese context and its potential for mapping a new global poetics. The purpose of this treatment is thus twofold: first, it will redefine the East–West literary relationship, and second, it will seek a new ethics of life, as endorsed by Deleuze's philosophy of immanence. One finds an affinity between literature and life in Deleuze's philosophy: in short, literature appears as the passage of life and an enterprise of health and thus seeks new possibilities of life, which consists in the invention of a new language and a new people. But what kind of health may such a view provide for a non-Western individual, people, literature and culture? This investigation further appeals to the medium of translation. This paper argues that the act of translation functions as a means of deterritorialisation that displays continuing variations of a language, and through translation, Deleuze's clinical and critical aspects of literature promote a transversal poetics that transcends the binary, oppositional conception of East–West and an immanent ethics of life that overcomes the sentiment of ressentiment.

‘Pardon for not meaning’: Remarks on Derrida, Blanchot and Kafka

Derrida Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Sheaffer-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Maurice Blanchot

Jacques Derrida returns relentlessly to the question of literature which is already a prominent concern in early texts such as Writing and Difference. The focus of this article is the conception of literature in ‘Literature in Secret: An Impossible Filiation’, in which Derrida discusses filiation with reference to Abraham and Isaac, the fundamental necessity of secrecy and the notion of the pardon. Above all, it is Kafka's Letter to His Father which perhaps provides a paradigm for defining literature. In this specular address, the promise of a heritage is in the balance. Writing incessantly on Kafka, Maurice Blanchot also reflects on literature. The notion of literature put forward by Derrida in ‘Literature in Secret: An Impossible Filiation’ is considered in this article, as well as reflections by Blanchot, to show what might be at stake in Kafka's Letter to His Father.

The Many Voices of Lydia Davis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Evans
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Marcel Proust ◽  
Gustave Flaubert ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Michel Leiris ◽  
The Many

The Many Voices of Lydia Davis shows how translation, rewriting and intertextuality are central to the work of Lydia Davis, a major American writer, translator and essayist. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2013, Davis writes innovative short stories that question the boundaries of the genre. She is also an important translator of French writers such as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris, Marcel Proust and Gustave Flaubert. Translation and writing go hand-in-hand in Davis’s work. Through a series of readings of Davis’s major translations and her own writing, this book investigates how Davis’s translations and stories relate to each other, finding that they are inextricably interlinked. It explores how Davis uses translation - either as a compositional tool or a plot device - and other instances of rewriting in her stories, demonstrating that translation is central for understanding her prose. Understanding how Davis’s work complicates divisions between translating and other forms of writing highlights the role of translation in literary production, questioning the received perception that translation is less creative than other forms of writing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document