Preface by Geoffrey Hartman ‘Thisslection rom the ertcl wings of Maurie Blanchot an only le suggestive of dtinguised oeuvre that began inthe 130sand spans fonty years. Yet the selection is exemplary for ts lal translated and wellchosen exes fom Blanchos many ifental boos. Reading im mow, and inthis form, el once more the excitement of discover ing Blanchot in the 195s, andl wonder why ttooko longo introduce him to an English-speaking public. There are ficulties, of couse: certain of his themes ate obsenively aborted and histext-milien may fappea exotic. His reading has absorbed vast amount of Continental BBiloophy, including Hegel and Heeger, and near-untanslable poets sich ss Holderin and Mallarmé. But the dificlis his work Drsnts pale before the inns interest of his meditations, The ime has come when his so of mind—andprose~can be appreciated. Ta the 1950s one was antonished ato intense a concentation on the “work” ofthe writer a fthelaterhadhisown clementtolveardiein, whatever the er, whatever the national language. Blanchot nevet removed hissubjects fom the witing-coniton om abe pape, ink, the actof naming or nouning, the Nuentease othe dead imperonality and anguish of wating ast performed Hegel “labor ofthe Nezative.” Blanchot’ crtique of views ofthe incamationist image ot his sess on the compleniy fictional visualization made Anglo-American theories of organic form sem lke a pastoral punuit. According to Blanchot, ‘wtng a fearful pital weapon that negates the nave existence of ‘what tars and must therefore do the some toil. Literature runs the danger of denying its own dese for presence, although iteannet(as Hegel thought) become anything. clie-philosphy, for example. Hence wing i asl dstbed activi it knows clo be, at once, trivial and apocalyptic, vain yet ofthe greatest consciousness alteringPotential. As Blanchot say, in the early amazing esay that opens this collection: “I scems comical and miserable that in order to manifest itself, dread, which opens and elotes the sh sitngat is table an forming lees on a pcee of paper.” Te would be wrong, however, to view Blanchot aba philosopher with mystical leanings, who has somehow wandered into the realm ofa and cannot get out. From the beginning he was a journalist rather than & ypc, conceiving writing as an absolutly daily act, like politics. His, carliest ook ofesiys was gathered fom embattled joumals of his day ‘And the late criticism isbest seen as a continuo, open-ended conver. sation of “infinite interview” with Roméntic and. post Romantic authors. More precisely, with authors—literary, philosophical, theological —who have absorbed the shock of evolution (specially the French Revolution) and its Reign of Tero. Tha terror never ceases, according to Blanchot: it continues to shape the literature of our time, But the historical events also make writers aware of a revolutionary activity already within them: ofa radially negative power, that of lane guage ‘fcr upheavals like the Freneh Revolution, and again after the Holocaust, the dial of interest shifts fom significance to force, and continues fo quiverbetween them. Thre are those who say that writing ‘makes nocfference, that reflection cannot change the world: and there ‘ace those who insist that ony thinkes who have experienced writing or speech acs equivalent to it—lke parables in the New Testament or the negative utterances of Christ (Noli me tangere, "don’t touch me”)— now themselves enough to bea fore for change, This understandingof language asthe act of great poets or prosasts—and not as an abstract |quidity—is brought by Blanchot int studies of Kakaand Kierkegaard, Of Flaubert and Witigenstcin, of Heldelin, Hegel, Nitzsche and Rilke, of Melvlleand Mann, of Mallarmé, Rousse and Duras, For what dol prize him mos” His essays ae living proof tha literary ‘itis has its own reason for being. Iisnatthe sevantor fashionable ‘xpositor ofthe latest thought system. Weall know that in England ana ‘America citcsm enjoys a doubifl status. Asa philosopher you ate something, even ifyou write on Nothing. Bata a literary says yout remain a nothing a hybrid orbordret between philosophy and litera PREPACE x ture, indecisive, or making indecisiveness your specialty. Blanchot,