Translator's Note ix
Preface xi
Part I 1907-1923
1. Blanchot of Quain: Genealogy, Birth, Childhood (1907-1918) 3
2. Music and Family Memory: Marguerite Blanchot in Chalon (1920s) 10
3. The Fedora of Death: Illness (1922-1923) 13
Part II 1920s-1940
4. The Walking Stick with the Silver Pommel: The University of Strasbourg (1920s) 21
5. A Flash in the Darkness: Meeting Emmanuel Levinas (1925-1930) 24
6. There Is: Philosophical Apprenticeship (1927-1930) 29
7. Aligning One's Convictions: Paris and Far-Right Circles (1930s) 34
8. "Mahatma Gandhi": A First Text by Blanchot (1931) 41
9. Refusal, I. The Revolution of Spirit: La Revue Française, Réaction, and La Revue du Siècle (1931-1934) 44
10. Journalist, Opponent of Hitler, National- Revolutionary: Le Journal des Débats, Le Rempart, Aux Écoutes, and La Revue du Vingtième Siècle (1931-1935) 51
11. The Escalation of Rhetoric: The Launch of Combat (1936) 62
12. Terrorism as a Method of Public Safety: Combat ( July-December 1936) 67
13. Patriotism's Breaking Point: L'Insurgé (1937) 71
14. These Events Happened to Me in 1937: Death Sentences (1937-1938) 82
15. On the Transformation of Convictions: A Journalist of the Far Right (1930s) 88
16. From Revolution to Literature: Literary Criticism (1930s) 91
17. Murderous Omens of Times to Come-Writing the Récits:

"The Last Word" and "The Idyll" (1935-1936) 101
18. Night Freely Recircled, Which Plays Us: Thomas the Obscure (1932-1940) 111
Part III 1940 -1949
19. The Universe Is to Be Found in Night: Resistance (1940-1944) 121
20. Using Vichy against Vichy: Jeune France (1941-1942) 127
21. Admiration and Agreement: Meeting Georges Bataille (1940-1943) 135
22. In the Name of the Other: Literary Chronicles at the Journal des Débats (1941-1944) 145
23. A True Writer Has Appeared: The Publication and Reception of Thomas the Obscure (1941-1942) 160
24. Lift This Fog Which Is Already of the Dawn: The Publication of Aminadab (1942) 163
25. Writers Who Have Given Too Much to the Present: NRF Circles (1941-1942) 170
26. From Anguish to Language: The Publication of Faux pas (1943) 178
27. The Prisoner of the Eyes That Capture Him: Quain (Summer 1944) 182
28. The Disenchantment of the Community: Editorial Activity after Liberation (1944 -1946) 187
29. The Year of Criticism: L'Arche, Les Temps Modernes, and Critique (1946) 192
30. Respecting Scandal: Literary Criticism (1945-1948) 195
31. The Black Stain: Writing The Most High (1946-1947) 208
32. The Passion of Silence: Denise Rollin (1940s) 219
33. The Mediterranean Sojourn: The Writing of the Night (1947) 225
34. Something Inflexible: The Madness of the Day, a New Status for Speech (1947-1949) 229
35. The Turn of the Screw: The Second Version of Thomas the Obscure (1947-1948) 232
36. The Authority of Friendship: The Completion of Death Sentence (1947-1948) 235
37. Quarrels in the Literary World: Publication and Reception (1948-1949) 239
Part IV 1949-1959
38. Invisible Partner: Èze, Withdrawal (1949-1957) 245
39. The Essential Solitude: Writing the Récits (1949-1953) 248
40. The Radiance of a Blind Power: When the Time Comes (1949-1951) 254
41. Are You Writing, Are You Writing Even Now? The One Who Was Standing Apart from Me (1951-1953) 261
42. The Critical Detour: A Few Articles of Literary Criticism (1950-1951) 266
43. The Author in Reverse: The Birth of The Space of Literature (1951-1953) 271
44. Always Already (The Poetic and Political Interruption of Thought):

Toward The Book to Come (1953-1958) 280
45. Of an Amazing Lightness: The Last Man (1953-1957) 290
46. Grace, Strength, Gentleness: Meeting Robert Antelme (1958) 297
47. In the Gaze of Fascination: The Return to Paris (1957-1958) 301
48. Refusal, II. In the Name of the Anonymous: The 14 Juillet Project (1958-1959) 303
Part V 1960 -1968
49. Note That I Say "Right" and Not "Duty": The Declaration on the Right to Insubordination in the Algerian War (1960) 315
50. Invisible Partners: The Project for the International Review (1960-1965) 324
51. Characters in Thought: How Is Friendship Possible? (1958-1971) 336
52. Act in Such a Way That I Can Speak to You: Awaiting Oblivion (1957-1962) 342
53. The Thought of the Neuter: Literary and Philosophical Criticism-the Entretien and

the Fragment (1959-1969) 349
54. A First Homage: The Special Issue of Critique (1966) 362
55. Between Two Forms of the Unavowable: The Beaufret Affair (1967-1968) 370
56. The Far Side of Fear: Political Disillusionment (May 1968) 375
Part VI 1969-1997
57. Life Outside: The Step Not Beyond, a Journal Written in the Neuter (1969-1973) 389
58. Friendship in Disaster: Distance, Disappearance (1974 -1978) 403
59. The Last Book: The Writing of the Disaster (1974 -1980) 406
60. Forming the Myth: Readings and Nonreadings (1969-1979) 416
61. Making the Secret Uncomfortable: Blanchot's Readability and Visibility (1979-1997) 424
62. With This Break in History Stuck in One's Throat: The Unavowable Community (1982-1983) 435
63. Even a Few Steps Take Time: Literature and Witnessing (1983-1997) 445
Amor: Blanchot since 2003 465
John McKeane
Acknowledgments 479
Notes 481
Bibliography 599
Index 605