File spoon-archives/blanchot.archive/blanchot_1999/blanchot.9910, message 9


Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 10:20:30 +0100
From: leslie hill <leslie.hill-AT-warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: MB: Blanchot biographical.....


At 12:53 11/10/99 +1000, you wrote:
>David: Could you elaborate, please, about the mistake Bident makes about
>how Blanchot helped Levinas's family during the war? If possible, could
>you correct the mistake?
>
>Kevin Hart
>
>
>
>
>David Hansel wrote:
>> 
>> mike wrote:
>> 
>> > I've found biographical material on Blanchot very difficult to find -
>> > probably echoing Foucault's words about him that he has disappeared
into his
>> > texts. However, I picked up Christophe Bident's recent 'essai
>> > biographique' - some 630 pages - entitled 'Maurice Blanchot: Partenaire
>> > Invisible' (Editions Champ Vallon, 1998) recently (ISBN: 2 87673 253 X).
>> > I've not had a chance to read it yet, but wondered if anyone else had
come
>> > across it, and how they rated it.
>> >
>> > Mike Purcell
>> >
>> > Dr Michael Purcell
>> > Faculty of Divinity
>> > New College,
>> > University of Edinburgh
>> > Mound Place,
>> > EDINBURGH
>> > EH1 2LX
>> > Scotland
>> >
>> > 'phone: (+44) (0) 131. 650. 7905
>> > 'phone/fax: (+44) (0) 1324. 621038
>> > e-mail: M.Purcell-AT-ed.ac.uk
>> 
>> There is another biography recently published aboy Blanchot: Maurice
Blanchot :
>> le sujet
>> de l'engagement by Philippe Mesnard , published at L'Harmattan ISBN
>> 2-7384-4577-2.
>> This book is extremely interesting.
>> 
>> Regarding Bident's book: I was especially interested in  what Bident
says about
>> the relationship between Blanchot and Levinas. I have found in this book
>> several  big mistakes. One big mistake,
>> I remember, is about  facts regarding how Blanchot helped  Levinas's family
>> during the war. Another  mistake, I can remember, is the claim that
Blanchot
>> heard about Kabbalah from Levinas and  therefore indirectly from the
mysterious
>> Monsieur Chouchani. As far as
>> I  know, this is is pure fantasy.  For the rest  I cannot say anything
since I
>> am not at  ALL
>> a specialist of Blanchot ....
>> 
>> David Hansel
>
>
>-- 
>Professor Kevin Hart,
>Department of English,
>Monash University,
>Melbourne, Victoria, 3168,
>Australia.
>Fax: 61-3-9905 5593
>Ph:  61-3-9905 2145
>Email: Kevin.Hart-AT-arts.monash.edu.au
>

As many of you will know, the report of Blanchot's activities on behalf of
Levinas's wife and daughter during the Occupation was endorsed fairly
recently by Levinas's daughter.  If this account is based on a mistake, as
Kevin rightly asks, we should know how and why.

Regarding Philippe Mesnard's book, I have to say that this is, in my view,
contentious in the extreme, as well as full of factual mistakes, and based
(it would appear) on an incomplete examination of the (now readily
available) historical material.  It also seems to be the case that, for
reasons best known to himself, Mesnard has also allowed himself to be used
by Sollers and L'Infini as part of their long-standing MB-was-a-fascist
campaign.

Leslie Hill

Leslie Hill
Department of French Studies
University of Warwick
COVENTRY CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
e-mail: leslie.hill-AT-warwick.ac.uk
fax: + 44 (0)1203 524679


   

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