Blanchot, Maurice, 1907-2003

Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003) was born in Quain, in Saône-et-Loire, to a conservative and Catholic family. Blanchot went on to study Philosophy and German at the University of Strasbourg, where he first met Emmanuel Levinas and became lifelong friends, likely in 1925 or 1926. By 1929, Blanchot moved to Paris. He briefly studied medicine at Saint Anne’s Hospital in the early 1930s and then became involved with writing for French far-right journals. With the outbreak of World War II, Blanchot withdrew from political writing, and would later seek to distance himself from his involvement in the rightist politics of the 1930s, especially anti-Semitism. He published his first novel, Thomas the Obscure, in 1941 and his second, Aminidab in 1942. His first collection of literary essays, Faux pas, was published in December 1943, with discussions on the work of Mallarmé, Proust, Kierkegaard, Rimbaud, and Melville.

Towards the end of 1940, Blanchot was introduced to Georges Bataille, and the two remained close until Bataille’s death in 1962. Blanchot was directly influenced by Bataille’s thought on Nietzsche and Hegel, and through Bataille, began participating in a regular philosophical discussion at 3 rue de Lille, where he met Denise Rollin, with whom he was also very close. With Bataille, he helped formulate the “College socratique,” and was present at the “Discussion on Sin” in 1944 organized by Bataille. Throughout his career, Blanchot continued to engage with Bataille’s thought and writings, particularly in The Infinite Conversation (or L’Entretien infini).

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