Maurice Blanchot / 1907 - 2003

Maurice Blanchot

 

Maurice Blanchot

1907-2003

Enigmatic French writer committed to the virtues of silence and abstraction

Douglas Johnson
Sat 1 Mar 2003 10.41 GMT

The French writer Maurice Blanchot, who has died aged 95, was not so much a private person, it was almost as if he was perpetually absent. He lived in isolated places, such as the village of Eze-Village, in the south, or Mesnil Saint Denis, in the Yvelines, where he died. He never appeared on radio or television, never spoke in public and did not allow himself to be photographed. One biographer, Christophe Bident, entitled his book Maurice Blanchot: Invisible Partner.

Yet Blanchot was considered one of the outstanding intellectuals of postwar France. He wrote 11 novels and a series of essays, many of which also appeared in book form. None were bestsellers, but what counted was their quality. People were not always converted to his ideas, but they were invariably fascinated by him.

Blanchot was not ready to tell his life story, but we know that he was born in the village of Quain, in Saone et Loire, and went to university in Strasbourg and Paris. He studied German and philosophy, and considered medicine.

He took up journalism in 1930 and, as a young bourgeois, was given to the right-wing opinion that France was being ruined by its constitution, the corruption of politicians and by the foreigners within. The worst enemy was Léon Blum's Popular Front government and, in November 1936, in the revue Combat, Blanchot denounced "the degenerates and the traitors" who were governing France, adding that the day must come when the government should be brought down by the people.

Such sentiments were often expressed by anti-semitic writers attacking Blum and, many years later, Blanchot himself was criticised for anti-semitism. But this was never the case: he also worked for Paul Levy's weekly Aux Ecoutes, which had been founded to denounce Hitler, and his best friend was the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

By 1939, Blanchot had left these political ideas behind. He spent the war in Paris, becoming friends with literary figures connected with the Nouvelle Revue Francaise. When, with German agreement, Drieu La Rochelle took over the review, Blanchot acted as secretary from March to May 1942.

His first novel, Thomas l'Obscur (1941), was an abstract work, in many ways anticipating le nouveau roman. The principal character had no personal history, was not situated socially, and had no clear geographical location. There was no story, only the set of writing.

But the work was an indication of Blanchot's postwar route. From 1953 to 1968, he wrote a monthly article for the Nouvelle Revue Francaise, and it was these pieces, together with a number of collected essays, that made his reputation. He became a most respected literary critic.

This was all the more remarkable because his thought ran counter to the prevailing belief that literature and art should be committed to a cause, and that writers have a duty to commit themselves. Blanchot believed that it was in writing itself that the author found his purpose; there was the use of language, the reality of silence and the overwhelming reality of death. Jean-Paul Sartre was impressed, and devoted space to discussing Blanchot's ideas.

Blanchot's devotion to language was comparable to the observations of his friend Georges Bataille on obsessions and impulses, and led him to support new writers, such as Samuel Beckett and Alain Robbe-Grillet. But he was not oblivious to world events; in 1960, he wrote the final version of the Manifeste des 121, which called on French soldiers in Algeria to desert rather than employ torture.

In May 1968, Blanchot again left his solitude to join the street demonstrations of the student protest movement, on one of which he met the philosopher Jacques Derrida. They had both researched the work of Mallarmé, who had fulfilled Blanchot's belief that the hold on language was the supreme test of a writer, and, last week, Derrida was to give the speech at Blanchot's funeral.

After 1968, Blanchot retired from the scene, although he continued to publish. Sometimes, he offered to return to public activity - as with his suggestion that he could mediate between Salman Rushdie and his Islamic enemies - but usually he acted as if he were already dead, and said that his books were posthumous.

· Maurice Blanchot, writer, born September 27 1907; died February 20 2003

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