Encountering the Other: The Artwork and the Problem of Difference in Blanchot and Levinas

Abstract

Two of the most creative and compelling thinkers of the second half of the 20th century, Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas, first encountered each other in the 1920s and began a friendship that was to span over seven decades. Their subsequent exchange of ideas and shared concerns, as well as their significant differences and influence on one another, have profound implications for the work of each. This work represents the most sustained analysis to date of the intersections of structure and content in Blanchot and Levinas's most representative and complex works