Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:24:47 -0700
Subject: Re: MB: Blanchot in Ency. of Modern French Thought 


[Apology to the list: this has more to do with the Fitzroy-Dearborn 
encyclopedia than with Blanchot per se]

Kevin:
I too was horrified to realize the EMFT had left out Blanchot, and thus 
could scarcely claim to be encyclopedic. Although my entry on Jean Wahl 
was included, my other contribution on Lacoue-Labarthe vanished into 
thin air: I think editorial choices as well as (?) production problems 
may be at issue here.

An encyclopedia of this sort is a curious balancing act which involves a 
difficult pluralism, which I agree with in principle. Some of the actual 
choices must, however, be questioned: Bardeche and Glucksmann are in but 
Genet and Duras are out??? There are, to be fair, many inspired choices 
for such a small overall list (Barbara Cassin, Didi-Huberman, 
Dumazedier, Le Doeuff, etc.).

There is also at least one ghost entry (Veronique Tadjo is in the index 
but nowhere else) and quite a flurry of typos. In the first few pages 
(Index [xv-xvi]), Bardeche, Godard, Serres, Tadjo have misspelled 
accents or hyphens. In the Chronology, the following titles are 
misspelled, often horribly [xix-xx]: "Physique d'amour"; "Etre et 
avoir"; [mentioned as published in two different years, once with accent 
grave]; "La Psychoanalyse du feu"; "La Societe feudal"; "Le Myth de 
Sisyphe"; "Sur Racinebache" [my favorite!!]; "Sociologie du theatre" [no 
accents]. All this is in 4 of the 713 pages of the encyclopedia... The 
absence of any real proof-reading alone warrants an immediate reedition, 
with the inclusion of Blanchot.

Christophe Wall-Romana