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Maurice Blanchot as Novelist

Author(s): Georges PouletReviewed work(s):Source: Yale French Studies, No. 8, What's Novel in The Novel (1951), pp. 77-81Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929134 .Accessed: 06/01/2012 10:05

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GEORGES POULETMauriceBlanchot s NovelistMauriceBlanchots both critic nda novelist,hat s to saya novelistwho has had occasion o reflect n theveryprinciples f his art. Asa result he is the most strict nd demanding f all contemporaryFrenchwriters f fiction.n his opinionthe goal of the novelis notthe fictional xistence f charactersr the portrayal f an imaginaryworld,even less is it that kind of supplementaryealitywhichthenaturaliststtemptedo weave into the compactpattern f an un-contestednd preestablishedorld. uchnovels,n Blanchot's pinion,reimpure nd imperfect,s insignificants poemswithout oetry. lanchotis evidentlybsessed y a form f novel,which, n the realmoffiction,wouldbe the equivalent f pure poetry.What he tries o attain s anovelof which very lement ught o be returnedo a doubtfultatus,'a novel whichwouldbe obligedto invent nd authenticate,s it wasbeingwritten,ts own existence nd its own universe.Viewed n a certainway, ucha novelcanbe only purelymagina-tive work. t can ask for no support rom world which s alreadyknown.With no preamblest mustmakeus enter nd roam n name-less spaces, among beings whose relationships e do not know,andwithwhomwe feel thegreatest ifficultiesf communication: worldof whichwe know neither he awsnorthe anguage, strangeworld,a foreignworld.But on theotherhand, hisworldmustnotbe abso-lutely ncomprehensibleo us. We mustbe able to conceive omepos-sibility f interpretingt,ofmakingt significantlyur own. The novelshould consistpreciselyn our effortseven though hey re uselessand necessitateonstantlyeginning ver again) to establish meansof communicationetween hatworldand ourselves.t will thereforebe a worldwhich s strangend strangelynderstandable,paque andtransparent,antasticnd familiar.n trutht will be simply ur dreamworld, r else the universe s we see it in thephenomenonf param-nesia,that s, transformednto anotherworld, "contremonde,"hichwould be like"thenegation,heoverturningf the realworld."2ucha novel must t last "end in mythicalnvention."3ike the novelsofKafkaandMelville,ikeMallarme'sgitur nd Lautreamont'saldorof,Blanchot's ovelgives tsauthor,tsreader,nd itshero taskwhich s1La Part du feu,p. 219.2 Ibid., p. 85.3Faux pas, p. 230.

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Yale French tudiestruly lobal. t is a question f guessing he essential nigma, f con-ferringompletemeaning nman's niverse. ut as thismeanings nevertrue, since it is alwayspartial,always outdistancednd constantlybelied, hepersonwho must ook for t is unceasinglyaced with thetask of successive econstructions,f not of reality, t least of the in-telligibilityf everything e sees. Thus are explained, or novels ofthistype, he multiple ndeavors,he endlesswanderingalong emptycorridors,"4ll manner f "spacesvainly raversed"5ike hospital oomsor antechambersf governmentalfficials,nd lastly the essentiallyrepetitiveimeelement, iththesame encountersccurringgainandagain and always unfailinglymbiguous. uch is the universe, on-stantly alled again in question, he cellulary nd mythical niversewhichthecharactersn Blanchot'smost maginative ovels,Aminadaband Le Tres Hagt, hastily ass through. hey are "wanderersookingfornothing."6Thus Blanchot's ovel is one of perpetual ailure. t testifieso theimpossibilityf a significantniverse uilt by the humanmind. t is"the tragedy f the creative pirit,witnessingwith calm anguish tsown ruin."7And here the myth s no longerthat of spiritual ealitywhich s understoodndpossessed, utthevery ymbolf ackofreality,whichcauses everythinghatis seen, thought,nd said, by the veryfactthat t is seen, thought,nd said,to emerge s unreal nd there-foremythical.he novel s no longer myth, ut themyth f a myth;it is, like a poem by Mallarm',thehollowfigure f what is absent.Forms, vents, haracters,verythingn Blanchot's niverse s reducedto themonotonousestructionf a minutelyecounted alsehood,ntilfinally here emains nly a kind of brittlememory uch as one keepsin a deep recessof the mind concerning definitelylosed subject.Somewhat s in Sade'sworks, ut devoidof thevast joy withwhichSade completeshis hecatombs, lanchot'snovels presentcontinuousannihilation f all life. Yet thistoo is inexact, orhis victimshavereallynever ived,no blood flows, o bodyhas anywarmth o lose,and since the beginning f time thesebeingswithout xistence avebeen predestinedor death no less illusory han their ife. Death isnotmerelyhefinal ventwhich ndsall of Blanchot's ovels; t is the4Thomas 'obscur nouvelleversion), 1950, p. 83.5Faux pas, p. 285.6L'Arret e mort, . 120.7FaWx as,p. 300.78

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GEORGES POULET"initialcatastrophe,"8he single subject, he content f the plot, andthe onlycharacter,r rathercounter-character,",homwe hear about.Death fills ll thesenovels, r rathert does not fillthem, ince deathis not substance ut absence, n absencethatthe goal of Blanchot'snovels s to makevisible. I myself,"aysThomasthe unknown,havebecome creatornprotestgainsthe ct ofcreating."hat s Blanchot'screation, he creation f nothing. is novel s a vacuumpump, ma-chinefor emptyinghe world.Yet nothing ouldbe moreunjust han o judgethesenovels s purelynegativeworks. heyare not at all pseudo-poeticantasies n the tritetheme f the great llusion f existence. n the contrary,lanchot aswritten othingwhichdoes not claimattaining direct, undamentaland positiveexperience f "existence s such.'"10een in this light,Blanchot's iction o longer ppearsas the equivalent f a poem, asthe creation f an imposture,uton thecontrarys "a meansof dis-covery,"'1 concentrationn the most authentic xperience f themind.Thus it is not to theforeignmasters f the mythic ovel,Kafka,Melville, r Faulkner,hatone shouldcompareBlanchot, ut ratherto Frenchmasters,heauthorsfLa Princesse e Cheves,fAdoiphe, fLa Nausee. Blanchots linkedto a long line of novelists, ot so im-aginative nd even not so psychologicals metaphysical,orwhomthe novel is a fictionf themind,but a fiction hanks o whichthemindcanembarkn a hypotheticalutrealprocess f thought,endingtowardthathidden,dazzling, uddensomethingwhich is truth.Nonovelist s less realistic hanBlanchot;none,however, esiresto bemore veracious. or Blanchot, he novel is both a discourse nd amethod, methodicaliscourse hich s essentiallyartesiannd whichnullifies verythingictional,o thatout of thehyperbolicalestructionofapparentxistencemayfinally merge,s in theCogitoofDescartes,the ndubitableonsciousnessf "thefactof existence."'2

A novel of consciousness rought o a high point of perfection,Blanchot'smasterpiecehusfar, one of the majorworksof contem-porary renchiterature:uch s Thoma l'obscur.n order o grasp tsfullmeaning, ne neednothave read the greatExistentialisthinkers,even f the novel s filledwiththe thoughtfpresent-dayhilosophers,8fL Partdu fete, . 76.9Fauxpas,p. 350.'0 L Partdu feu,p. 267.llIbid., p. 200.12Faax pas, p. 38.

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Yale FrenchStudiesespecially hat of Lvinas.13But what one must understands thatconsciousnessorBlanchot,ince t is always rreparablyeparated romeverythingncluding tself, ould neverbe otherthan the awarenessof infinitesolation,fthe very actof existence id notoffer nmistak-able evidenceof presence, constant ffirmationoomingbehind allseparatenegations, unique spot,a point without pace or duration,wheretherewere no more contradictoryerms,'4 here the objectiveand subjectivemeet, herefore singularlyelicitous ite, the onlyonewheretruth nd our consent o truth an be situated. veryone ofBlanchot's ovels s directed oward ealization f thisexperience. nceit is attained, othingmore exists save the consciousnessf an ex-istence, qually personal nd impersonal,ocatedoutsideand within,infinitelyear or infinitelyar,neither he existence f another erson,considered s another erson,nor that of self, onsidered s self,northat f things, onsidereds things.t is simplywhat s there, totalityincapable f beingdescribed, hich ppars n consciousnessfter very-thinghas been "reduced o nothing y repudiation,"'5s an indetermin-atepresence,hefirst ruth vergrasped y themind, he ast t can everattain, nd one whichnevermanifeststself xcept n a kindof horrorand anguish. t is the feelingof 'This exists":"Beginning owhere,finishingowhere,tassumed ormndiscriminatelyrom ll directions."1Such is the experience f unalloyed xistence, f "existencewithoutbeing"'7which Blanchot s constantly rgingus to feel,since it isperhaps heone authentic eeling hatwe have,theparamount umanfeelingwhich s thehiddenmainspringf all our spiritualdventures.This makes it easy to understand hyBlanchot onsiders he novela literarynd philosophical orm,more precious han anyotherpre-ciselybecausethe novel, beingfiction,onstitutesn easy and readymeans o reduce o fictionll the detailswhichprevent s from eeingexistencen its impersonal ermanency.he novel s a wayof accom-plishing,with all possible peed, as complete n ascesisas possible,way of dealing death to everythinghat exists in order to revealimmortalxistence bove and beyondwhat has beendestroyed. verystrangend almost trociousmmortality,inceit is the immortalityfno one, but simplythe logical impossibilityf conceiving he fact18 Emmanuel evinas, e I'existence l'existant,ontaine,947.14Thomas l'obscur, . 104.15Le TresHaut,p. 236.16 Ibid., p. 237.17La Part du fea, pp. 331-and 336.80

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GEORGES POULETof beingdead.Thus, ontraryo whathappensn theworks fHeideggerand Sartre, onsciousnessor Blanchot s condemnednever to ceasebeingthesubject nd the observer f an anonymous rama, ondemnedto outlive tself nd,on theproblem f imperishablexistence,o carryon an endlessmeditation hich s also imperishable.hus Blanchot'snovel s onewhich s constantlyebegunnd capableof beingrebegun,one in which, s in themythic hilosophy f Boehme, movementwhichcan neverescapethe "cycle f metamorphoses18 continues ut-side as well as within ll existences.ying is an unending vent, ndconstantlyeverythingegins mergingromnothing."'9A terribly iscouragingxperience,ll this,,nd yet one in whichthere s no finaldespair,no deathsentence, ecausedeath concludesnothing, ecause here s no death nd no end.Blanchot's ovelsmakeus dwell n a kindofHell, butstrangelyevoidof central ire.Warmthhasno role;that f cold is very mportant.erhaps hemost dmirableaspect f thiswilfullyrozenwork s itscoldness, otonlythecoldnessof a Jansenisthought, hichhas attained he mostsevere implicityand the mosthumble nd haughtyndigence,ut also the chillarisingfromthe voluntarympoverishmentf languagewhich eschews nypersonal ouch."All he lacks is discovering is style,"20 artreoncesaid of Blanchot.Nothing ould be more nexact. n Blanchot's ase,stylewould be something uperfluous. is language, ike everythingelse,mustbe reduced o the simplicityf a reptile'sglide.All thequalitieswhich reate tylistic agic, nd which, ccording o Baudelaire,are "intensity,onority,impidness,apacity or vibration, epth, ndreverberationn space and time,"2' ll thesequalities re intentionallyabsent; nd the beauty f this anguage ies preciselyn those bsences,in its forcing tself o be dull, colorless, paque,without imbre ndwithoutwarmth,ucceeding y these means n expressing xactly henegative spectsof a world stripped f its superficialppearance. nicy universewhich resembles ot so muchthe polar nightsof theHe'rodiade s the hollow white depths hroughwhich humandreamsin hospital oomsgo wandering.GEORGES POULET is a professorf French iteratwren Scotland.HisEtudes ur e tempshumainwas published y the Edinburgh niversityPress n 1948.18L Partdu feu,p. 88.19Ibid., p. 308.20Sartre,ituations , p. 142.21 Baudelaire,Fasees,p. 17.

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