Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 12:00:07 +0100
Subject: MB: Heidegger


At 17:28 2/24/96, Chris wrote:
>Could anybody out there tell me to what extent Blanchot was familiar
>with Heidegger?  _L'Espace literaire_ strikes me as a very Heideggerian
>work in spots but I am not aware if any direct line of influence exists.

As Leo replied, Blanchot was very familiar with Heidegger.  He started
reading Heidegger after becoming friends with Levinas at Strasbourg in
1926.  "It is to him [Levinas] that I owe my first encounter with Husserl,
and even with Heidegger, whose lectures he had attended" (Blanchot Reader,
244).  In 1938, he writes that Heidegger's writings "reveal the power and
the creative will behind this thinking which, in the infinite debate
between laws, intelligence and chance, offers a new point of view from
which to contemplate its necessity" (BR 34).  Of course, his reading of
Heidegger develops itself later on.  By the time L'Entretien Infini is
published, I think Heidegger's impact on Blanchot's thinking/writing is
unmistakable.  Timothy Clark elucidates many of the connections in
_Derrida, Heidegger, Blanchot_.

At 10:09 2/26/96, william flesch wrote:
>Much of Blanchot could be seen as a direct critique of Heidegger

I don't think that there's an oppositional critique going on.  His take on
Heidegger is not nearly as rigid as Levinas' for example.  Blanchot seems
to me to have a somewhat friendly relationship with many of Heidegger's
ideas.  Blanchot chooses to directly critique certain aspects of
Heidegger's thinking, but I wonder if in the end it's not just a matter of
demonstrating Heidegger's necessity.

Cheers,
Dan