The Writing of Innocence
Blanchot and the Deconstruction of Christianity
Format:Hardback
Publisher:State University of New York Press
Published:1st Jul '22
Should be back in stock very soon
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£27.50(9781438489001)
An original reading of Blanchot's thought with far-reaching philosophical and literary implications.
The Writing of Innocence explores the topic of innocence and the peculiar relationship to Christianity in the writing of Maurice Blanchot. Its starting point is that innocence is not a condition relegated to a mythical past but rather one resulting from the construction of the subject in and through language. Hence, we don't lose innocence; instead, we are lost by innocence. It is an excess, not a lack. This inverted notion of innocence raises new ethical and political issues that Aïcha Liviana Messina unfolds through vigorous re-readings of a series of biblical motifs, including law, grace, and apocalypse. The closing chapter turns to the convergences and divergences between Jean-Luc Nancy's and Blanchot's understandings of the deconstruction of Christianity. With a foreword by philosopher Serge Margel, The Writing of Innocence offers a fresh perspective on Blanchot's writings in general and on his dialogue with Hegel in particular. While staging innocence in its philosophical and literary dimensions, The Writing of Innocence provides singular readings of works by Kierkegaard, Agamben, Derrida, Nancy, Camus, Hugo, and Kafka.
"This is a text rich with many constellations of thought and strands of argumentation, each compelling in its own right, yet often unfolding simultaneously … The treatment [Messina] offers of the topic in this volume is exciting, constructive work, and I leave this book convinced of its profound philosophical and political stakes." — Bevin Blaber, Journal of Religion
"This book stands out among the scholarship on Blanchot and religion and represents a new opening onto thinking politics with Blanchot." — French Studies
"…Messina further enriches our understanding of how religion, literature, and the political are related for Blanchot by attending specifically to how he engages Christian biblical and theological themes." — Reading Religion
"The Writing of Innocence makes a lasting contribution to contemporary continental philosophy. Messina gives readers insight into the overall dynamic of Blanchot's thought, presents this dynamic through an unjustly neglected theme, and shows how this theme helps us see the complexity and ambivalence in Nancy's responses to Blanchot. The result is a new conception of modern French thought, elegantly and succinctly developed under the optic of innocence." — Peter Fenves, author of The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time
ISBN: 9781438488998
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 472g
218 pages