Political Writings, 1953-1993

263 Pages·2010·1.31 MB·English

by  Maurice Blanchot

Political Writings, 1953–1993
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M
aurice Blanchot
Political Writings, 1953–1993
Translated , with an
Introduction , by Zakir Paul
fordham university press
NewYork 2010
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Copyright(cid:2)2010FordhamUniversityPress
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ThecoreofthisbookwaspublishedinFrenchasMaurice
Blanchot,E´critspolitiques:1958–1993in2003byE´ditions
Le´oScheer,(cid:2)E´ditionsLignes&Manifestes,2003.Thetexts
translatedas‘‘AnApproachtoCommunism(Needs,
Values),’’‘‘[Interrogationwiththejudge],’’‘‘[Questionedby
thejudge],’’‘‘TheCourseoftheWorld,’’‘‘LettertoIlija
Bojovic,’’‘‘ParanoiainPower(TheDialecticsofRepression:
ASmallContributiontoResearch),’’and‘‘Yes,SilenceIs
NecessaryforWriting’’appearinFrenchinMaurice
Blanchot,E´critspolitiques:1953–1993,
(cid:2)E´ditionsGallimard,2008.
Cetourvrage,publie´ danslecadred’unprogrammed’aidea`
lapublication,be´ne´ficiedusoutienfinancierduministe`re
desAffairese´trange`res,duServicecultureldel’ambassade
deFranceauxEtats-Unis,ainsiquedel’appuideFACE
(FrenchAmericanCulturalExchange).
Thiswork,publishedaspartofaprogramproviding
publicationassistance,receivedfinancialsupportfromthe
FrenchMinistryofForeignAffairs,fromtheCultural
ServicesoftheFrenchEmbassyintheUnitedStates,and
fromFACE(FrenchAmericanCulturalExchange).
ForLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData,
seepage201.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
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contents
Translator’sNote ix
Foreword:TheFriendshipoftheNo xi
kevinhart
Introduction:‘‘AffirmingtheRupture’’ xxxi
zakirpaul
Chronology lvii
Part I:Le14juilletand theRevueinternationaleProject,
1953–1962
AnApproachtoCommunism(Needs,Values) 3
Refusal 7
TheEssentialPerversion 8
DeclarationoftheRighttoInsubordinationintheAlgerianWar
[Manifestoofthe121] 15
Update 18
[TheDeclarationoftheRighttoInsubordinationthatwehave
signed] 20
[TheDeclaration...isnotaprotestmanifesto] 22
[Forus,thefirstfact] 24
[Itisasawriter] 26
[Interrogationwiththejudge] 29
[Questionedbythejudge] 32
[FirstIwouldliketosay] 33
[MauriceBlanchottoJean-PaulSartre] 36
LettersfromtheRevueinternationale 39
[Thegravityoftheproject] 56
[Areviewcanbetheexpression] 57
v
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vi Contents
[AReviewwithoutanydivision] 59
Memorandumonthe‘‘CourseofThings’’ 60
CourseofThings 62
TheCourseoftheWorld 67
TheConquestofSpace 70
Berlin 73
Part II: The Student-Writer Action Committee, the Review
Comite´, 1968
TractsoftheStudent-WriterActionCommittee(Sorbonne-
Censier)
[Thesolidaritythatweasserthere] 79
[Agovernmentdoesnotgovern] 79
[Bythepowerofrefusal] 80
Crime 80
[LettertoarepresentativeofYugoslavradio-television] 82
Comite´:TheFirstIssue
[Thepossiblecharacteristics] 85
InaStateofWar 86
AffirmingtheRupture 88
[Today] 89
[Politicaldeath] 89
[Thestreets] 91
[Communismwithoutheirs] 92
[Foralongtime,brutality] 93
[Tracts,posters,bulletins] 94
LettertoIlijaBojovic 95
[Thattheimmenseconstraint] 97
[Exemplaryacts] 98
[Twocharacteristicinnovations] 99
[Aruptureintime:revolution] 100
[ForComradeCastro] 100
[Ideologicalsurrender] 102
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Contents vii
[Clandestineresistanceoutintheopen] 103
[ReadingMarx] 103
OntheMovement 106
ParanoiainPower(TheDialecticsofRepression:ASmall
ContributiontoResearch) 110
Part III: Interventions, 1970–1993
RefusingtheEstablishedOrder 117
ThinkingtheApocalypse 119
DoNotForget 124
Yes,SilenceIsNecessaryforWriting 130
‘‘Factory-Excess,’’orInfinityinPieces 131
IntheNightThatIsWatchedOver 133
ForFriendship 134
OurClandestineCompanion 144
TheAscendantWord;or,AreWeStillWorthyofPoetry? 153
Encounters(OntheResistanceandMay68) 161
Peace,PeaceFarandNear 162
LettertoBlandineJeanson 167
OurResponsibility(OnNelsonMandela) 168
WhatIsClosesttoMe 170
WritingCommittedtoSilence 171
[Ithinkitsuitsawriterbetter](OnNationalismand
Internationalism) 173
[TheInquisitiondestroyedtheCatholicreligion](OnSalman
Rushdie) 174
Notes 175
IndexofNames 199
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translator’s note
Most of the texts in this volume were collected in E´crits politiques: 1958–
1993, assembled by Michel Surya and published by Lignes & Manifestes
and E´ditions Le´o Scheer in 2003. According to the editor’s acknowledg-
ments, this volume was largely made possible by the issues of Lignes de-
votedtoBlanchot,DionysMascolo,andRobertAntelme,respectively,in
addition to the help of Daniel Dobbels, Christophe Bident, Jean-Luc
Nancy, and Monique Antelme. An expanded version of this edition, with
additional texts and variants, was published by Gallimard in 2008. The
additionaltextsincludedbothhereandintheGallimardvolumeare:‘‘An
Approach to Communism (Needs, Values),’’ ‘‘[Interrogation with the
judge],’’‘‘[Questionedbythejudge],’’‘‘TheCourseoftheWorld,’’‘‘Let-
ter to Ilija Bojovic,’’ ‘‘Paranoia in Power (The Dialectics of Repression:
A Small Contribution to Research),’’ and ‘‘Yes, Silence Is Necessary for
Writing.’’
The following texts included here have not been published in either
bookversioninFrench.The‘‘LettersfromtheRevueinternationale’’were
publishedinLignes,no.11(1990).‘‘ForFriendship’’waspublishedasPour
l’amitie´ by Fourbis in 1996. ‘‘Our Clandestine Companion’’ appeared as
‘‘Notrecompagneclandestine’’inMauriceBlanchotetal.,TextespourEm-
manuel Levinas (Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1980), 79–87. ‘‘The Ascendent
Word;or,AreWeStillWorthyofPoetry?’’appearedas‘‘Laparoleascen-
dante, ou Sommes-nous toujours digne de la poe´sie? (notes e´parses),’’ an
afterword to Vadim Kozovoı¨, Hors de la colline (Paris: Hermann, 1984),
119–27.‘‘Encounters(OntheResistanceandMay68)’’appearedas‘‘Les
rencontres’’ in Le nouvel observateur, no. 1045 (November 1984): 84.
‘‘Peace, Peace Far and Near’’ appeared as ‘‘Paix, paix au lointain et au
proche,’’ in De la Bible a` nos jours, catalog of a show of the Independent
Artists’Society,Paris,GrandPalais,1985.The‘‘LettertoBlandineJean-
son’’ took the place of the author’s photograph in Photographies en queˆte
d’auteur(Paris:AgenceVu,1986).‘‘OurResponsibility(OnNelsonMan-
dela)’’ was published as ‘Notre responsabilite´’’ in Jacques Derrida et al.,
ix
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x Translator’sNote
Pour Nelson Mandela (Paris: Gallimard, 1986), 213–17. ‘‘What Is Closest
to Me’’ was published as ‘‘Ce qui m’est le plus proche,’’ in Globe, no. 30
(July-August1988):56.‘‘[Ithinkitsuitsawriterbetter](OnNationalism
and Internationalism)’’ appeared as ‘‘Je crois qu’il convient mieux a` un
e´crivain’’inLare`gledujeu,no3.(January1991):221–22.
TranslationsofsomeofthesetextshavepreviouslyappearedinMichael
Holland, ed., The Blanchot Reader (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995); Maurice
Blanchot,Friendship,trans.ElizabethRottenberg(Stanford:StanfordUni-
versity Press, 2003), and special issues of The Oxford Literary Review (no.
22, Disastrous Blanchot, ed. Timothy Clark, Leslie Hill, and Nicholas
Royle, 2000) and Paragraph (no. 30, Blanchot’s Epoch, ed. Leslie Hill and
Michael Holland, 2007). The essayson Levinas and Antelme were trans-
lated in Face to Face with Levinas, ed. Richard A. Cohen (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2007), and in On Robert Antelme’s Human
Race, ed. Daniel Dobbels (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press,
2003), respectively. They have all been retranslated for the present
volume.
Throughout the text author’s footnotes are indicated in the asterisk-
daggersequence,whiletranslator’snotesappearwithArabicnumerals.
This translation would not have been possible without the unflagging
support of Helen Tartar and the editorial team at Fordham University
Press. Christophe Bident, Michael Holland, Jean-Michel Rabate´, and
Samuel Weber were invaluable sources of expertise and encouragement.
JeffFortgenerouslyreadthemanuscript,madecountlesscorrections,and
offered suggestions for improvement throughout. Any remaining errors
are my own. I would also like to thank Eduardo Cadava, Daniel Heller-
Roazen, Genevie`ve Rousselie`re, Thomas Trezise, and Arnd Wedemeyer
fortheirincisivecommentsontheintroduction.
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