The Infinite Conversation

1992
Author:

Maurice Blanchot
Translated by Susan Hanson
Foreword by Susan Hanson

“Blanchot waits for us still to come, to be read and reread. . . I would say that never as much as today have I pictured him so far ahead of us.” --Jacques Derrida

“Blanchot waits for us still to come, to be read and reread. . . I would say that never as much as today have I pictured him so far ahead of us.” --Jacques Derrida

“Written during the struggle between Hegeliansim and anti-Hegelianism in French thought preceding poststructuralism, Blanchot’s Infinite Conversation provides a crucial link for understanding the more immediate roots of poststructuralism. Blanchot’s writings inform the thought of Deleuze, Foucault, Lacan, and Derrida, and can provide contexts for some of the more difficult concepts of these other writers. The Infinite Conversation provides a mixture of rigorous theoretical thought and less formal converations, both of which are intriguing. Blanchot provides splendid readings of the way in which writers such as Nietzsche, Bataille, Pascal, Kafka, Heraclitus, and Sade develop a writing that interrupts being and postulates dissymetric relations. His readings of other writers are illuminating, and often quite surprising.” Review of Contemporary Fiction

In this landmark volume, Blanchot sustains a dialogue with a number of thinkers whose contributions have marked turning points in the history of Western thought and have influenced virtually all the themes that inflect the contemporary literary and philosophical debate today.

“Blanchot waits for us still to come, to be read and reread. . . I would say that never as much as today have I pictured him so far ahead of us.” Jacques Derrida

Maurice Blanchot is a French critic, theorist, and novelist and the author of numerous works, including Death Sentence, Friendship, The Writing of Disaster, and Awaiting Oblivion.

Susan Hanson is associate professor of French at Drake University.

“Written during the struggle between Hegeliansim and anti-Hegelianism in French thought preceding poststructuralism, Blanchot’s Infinite Conversation provides a crucial link for understanding the more immediate roots of poststructuralism. Blanchot’s writings inform the thought of Deleuze, Foucault, Lacan, and Derrida, and can provide contexts for some of the more difficult concepts of these other writers. The Infinite Conversation provides a mixture of rigorous theoretical thought and less formal converations, both of which are intriguing. Blanchot provides splendid readings of the way in which writers such as Nietzsche, Bataille, Pascal, Kafka, Heraclitus, and Sade develop a writing that interrupts being and postulates dissymetric relations. His readings of other writers are illuminating, and often quite surprising.” Review of Contemporary Fiction