The One Who Is Standing Apart from Me

This work takes the form of a conversation, an interview. An obsessive questioning back and forth builds up Blanchot¿s narrative, with its sense - shared with Kafkäs famous ¿doorkeeper¿ parable - that behind each question lies the spooky possibility of a further, more imposing, more insoluble question. Thematically, powerlessness, inertia, insufficient speech, weariness, falling, faltering - everything tied to a negative or nonexistent value in ordinary discourse - is given value here by its being articulated, moved into writing and thought. What¿s insignificant or worthless gathers weight through its troubling persistence, its failure to disappear. The ¿endless¿ conversation of Blanchot¿s writing turns ¿fiction¿ toward an experience of listening - a far cry from the storytelling most fiction (still) takes itself to be.

About the author

Maurice Blanchot is one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in modern French writing. His work encompasses the writing of novels and r

Product details

• Authors: Maurice Blanchot
• Assisted by: Lydia Davis (Translation)
• Publisher: Barrytown/Station Hill Press, Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.09.2000
• EAN: 9780882681511
• ISBN: 978-0-88268-151-1
• No. of pages: 104
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 7 mm
• Weight: 164 g
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature