Literature and Philosophy in Maurice Blanchot

the obscure vitalism of writing

Abstract

This work seeks to reconstruct the moments in which Blanchot's first literary work opens to philosophical thought. In Thomás, L'Obscur, the themes of a vitalism against the grain that closely follows the problems posed by death immanent in life, are transposed into an important characterization of what is understood as literary space. We try to show how his creation extends beyond the literary field, revealing an ontology of language and an intensive experience of reality. Although some Bergsonian concepts are critically incorporated (instead of life, duration and memory, what happens in Blanchot is death, instant and oblivion) it is not exactly about going against the grain. Such an inversion is ambiguous, as it does not exactly falsify the type of reality to which Bergsonism pointed, but rather deepens it.