Into Disaster: Chronicles of Intellectual Life, 1941

by Maurice Blanchot, Michael Holland (Translator)

The German Occupation of France put an end to Maurice Blanchot's career as a political journalist. In April 1941 he began to publish a weekly column of literary criticism in the Journal des Debats, which became the source for his first critical work, Faux pas (1943). As well as providing a unique perspective on cultural life during the Occupation, these pieces offer crucial insights into the mind and art of a writer who was to become one of the most influential figures on the French literary scene in the second half of the twentieth century.
As well as laying the basis for the career of one France's most original writers and thinkers, these articles also offer a reminder that Blanchot's political awareness remains undimmed, through clear if sometimes coded acts of criticism or defiance of the prevailing order.

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Maurice Blanchot was a French philosopher, literary theorist and writer of fiction. Blanchot was a distinctly modern writer who broke down generic boundaries, particularly between literature and philosophy. He began his career as a journalist on the political far right, but the experience of fascism altered his thinking to the point that he supported the student protests of May 1968. Like so many members of his generation, Blanchot was influenced by Alexandre Kojeve's humanistic interpretation of Hegel and the rise of modern existentialism. His “Literature and the Right to Death” shows the influence that Heidegger had on a whole generation of French intellectuals.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Around this brief work there plays a hum of reverie, a murmur of melancholy and tender despair. . .

Saw this and others in the series remaindered in Chicago and such was duly purchased. This isn't a journal, but rather Blanchot's collected journalism from the period of Occupation. There are some philosophical ruminations here, particularly on the concept of civilization, but by and large these are literary reviews. The texts reviewed in such are largely forgotten. Other than the two theoretical pieces, there isn't much here to interest the lay reader.

[Travis Grotewold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this offer insight into what Blanchot views as essential in literature; it also serves as a guide to any would-be novelists/writers, like a film negative making visible the traps to be avoided. And all in a very tumultuous time, not unlike our own.