"Blanchot, the Obscure"

A conference on the French critic and author Maurice Blanchot
Organized by the journal Colloquy
under the auspices of
The Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
and The School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash
University
and Alliance Française Melbourne

Dates: 19-20 August 2004

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Kevin Hart

Despite the enormous influence of his work, for many Maurice Blanchot
remains an obscure figure. His fiction is regarded by some as
impenetrable, his critical comments gnomic. His reclusive habits shroud
decisive events of his life, most notably his brush with death during
the occupation of France. For others, Blanchot's work is anything but
obscure, his reticence to reveal the details of his life being only a
proper extension of his lucid, critical thought.
Nevertheless, the adjective ‘obscure’ can function as a lens onto a
series of ideas appearing throughout Blanchot's writings. The mysterious
and the enigmatic feature prominently in terms of the il y a, death,
désoeuvrement, the event, the gaze, the negative, the neutral, madness.
Perhaps what remains most obscure is the work of writing itself, both in
practice and in theory. The obscurity of the work of writing brings to
the fore the relation between fiction and philosophy.This conference invites papers which address the life and work of
Blanchot in a way that is faithful to Blanchot himself. We do not seek
to unearth new facts, rather, to take heed of the exigency of writing as
conceptualised and practised by Blanchot. We encourage papers which deal
with the obscure in Blanchot's work in relation to any of the following
themes:

* Friendship * Death * Time and Being * The Greeks (especially the
pre-Socratics) * Blanchot in France and Germany * Literature (his
practical and/or theoretical contribution) * The Feminine * The Sacred *
Mysticism * Psychoanalysis * Blanchot in English *

Proposals (150 words max.) for twenty minute papers should be sent by 20
May 2004 by e-mail to colloquy@arts.monash.edu.au, or by post to
Colloquy, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash
University, PO Box 11A, Vic 3800, Australia.

Refereed proceedings of the conference will be published electronically
in Colloquy (www.arts.monash.edu.au) and in print in
the Monash Romance Studies series of Delaware University Press.

The Colloquy Editors

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Colloquy: text theory critique

CCLCS

PO Box 11A

Monash University

Vic, 3800

Australia

tel.: 61 (3) 9905 9009

fax: 61 (3) 9905 5593

email: colloquy@arts.monash.edu.au

url: colloquy