CONTENTS

Translator’s Note

Preface

Part I 1907–1923

1. Blanchot of Quain: Genealogy, Birth, Childhood (1907–1918)

2. Music and Family Memory: Marguerite Blanchot in Chalon (1920s)

3. The Fedora of Death: Illness (1922–1923)

Part II 1920s–1940

4. The Walking Stick with the Silver Pommel: The University of Strasbourg (1920s)

5. A Flash in the Darkness: Meeting Emmanuel Levinas (1925–1930)

6. There Is: Philosophical Apprenticeship (1927–1930)

7. Aligning One’s Convictions: Paris and Far-Right Circles (1930s)

8. “Mahatma Gandhi”: A First Text by Blanchot (1931)

9. Refusal, I. The Revolution of Spirit: La Revue Française, Réaction, and La Revue du Siècle (1931–1934)

10. Journalist, Opponent of Hitler, National-Revolutionary: Le Journal des Débats, Le Rempart, Aux Écoutes, and La Revue du Vingtième Siècle (1931–1935)

11. The Escalation of Rhetoric: The Launch of Combat (1936)

12. Terrorism as a Method of Public Safety: Combat (July–December 1936)

13. Patriotism’s Breaking Point: L’Insurgé (1937)

14. These Events Happened to Me in 1937: Death Sentences (1937–1938)

15. On the Transformation of Convictions: A Journalist of the Far Right (1930s)

16. From Revolution to Literature: Literary Criticism (1930s)

17. Murderous Omens of Times to Come—Writing the Récits: “The Last Word” and “The Idyll” (1935–1936)

18. Night Freely Recircled, Which Plays Us: Thomas the Obscure (1932–1940)

Part III 1940–1949

19. The Universe Is to Be Found in Night: Resistance (1940–1944)

20. Using Vichy against Vichy: Jeune France (1941–1942)

21. Admiration and Agreement: Meeting Georges Bataille (1940–1943)

22. In the Name of the Other: Literary Chronicles at the Journal des Débats (1941–1944)

23. A True Writer Has Appeared: The Publication and Reception of Thomas the Obscure (1941–1942)

24. Lift This Fog Which Is Already of the Dawn: The Publication of Aminadab (1942)

25. Writers Who Have Given Too Much to the Present: NRF Circles (1941–1942)

26. From Anguish to Language: The Publication of Faux pas (1943)

27. The Prisoner of the Eyes That Capture Him: Quain (Summer 1944)

28. The Disenchantment of the Community: Editorial Activity after Liberation (1944–1946)

29. The Year of Criticism: L’Arche, Les Temps Modernes, and Critique (1946)

30. Respecting Scandal: Literary Criticism (1945–1948)

31. The Black Stain: Writing The Most High (1946–1947)

32. The Passion of Silence: Denise Rollin (1940s)

33. The Mediterranean Sojourn: The Writing of the Night (1947)

34. Something Inflexible: The Madness of the Day, a New Status for Speech (1947–1949)

35. The Turn of the Screw: The Second Version of Thomas the Obscure (1947–1948)

36. The Authority of Friendship: The Completion of Death Sentence (1947–1948)

37. Quarrels in the Literary World: Publication and Reception (1948–1949)

Part IV 1949–1959

38. Invisible Partner: Èze, Withdrawal (1949–1957)

39. The Essential Solitude: Writing the Récits (1949–1953)

40. The Radiance of a Blind Power: When the Time Comes (1949–1951)

41. Are You Writing, Are You Writing Even Now? The One Who Was Standing Apart from Me (1951–1953)

42. The Critical Detour: A Few Articles of Literary Criticism (1950–1951)

43. The Author in Reverse: The Birth of The Space of Literature (1951–1953)

44. Always Already (The Poetic and Political Interruption of Thought): Toward The Book to Come (1953–1958)

45. Of an Amazing Lightness: The Last Man (1953–1957)

46. Grace, Strength, Gentleness: Meeting Robert Antelme (1958)

47. In the Gaze of Fascination: The Return to Paris (1957–1958)

48. Refusal, II. In the Name of the Anonymous: The 14 Juillet Project (1958–1959)

Part V 1960–1968

49. Note That I Say “Right” and Not “Duty”: The Declaration on the Right to Insubordination in the Algerian War (1960)

50. Invisible Partners: The Project for the International Review (1960–1965)

51. Characters in Thought: How Is Friendship Possible? (1958–1971)

52. Act in Such a Way That I Can Speak to You: Awaiting Oblivion (1957–1962)

53. The Thought of the Neuter: Literary and Philosophical Criticism—the Entretien and the Fragment (1959–1969)

54. A First Homage: The Special Issue of Critique (1966)

55. Between Two Forms of the Unavowable: The Beaufret Affair (1967–1968)

56. The Far Side of Fear: Political Disillusionment (May 1968)

Part VI 1969–1997

57. Life Outside: The Step Not Beyond, a Journal Written in the Neuter (1969–1973)

58. Friendship in Disaster: Distance, Disappearance (1974–1978)

59. The Last Book: The Writing of the Disaster (1974–1980)

60. Forming the Myth: Readings and Nonreadings (1969–1979)

61. Making the Secret Uncomfortable: Blanchot’s Readability and Visibility (1979–1997)

62. With This Break in History Stuck in One’s Throat: The Unavowable Community (1982–1983)

63. Even a Few Steps Take Time: Literature and Witnessing (1983–1997)

Amor: Blanchot since 2003

John McKeane

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index