The Night Itself: Blanchot, Descartes

Abstract

Abstract:Maurice Blanchot’s first novel, Thomas l’Obscur , contains a very intense episode in which the protagonist encounters the night. Close attention to the language and development of this episode indicates a proximity to Descartes’ method of scepticism. However, Blanchot significantly extends and suspends Descartes’ method, which leads to a reconfiguration of thought itself in such a way that it places in question the notions of sameness and difference as well as the relation of thought to literature and existence.