Event overview
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar
Maurice Blanchot Reading Group
Chair: Beth Guilding (Goldsmiths)
Reading (available on the GLITS Spring Term page on the VLE): Maurice Blanchot, 'Dreaming, Writing', from Friendship, pp. 140-149, and 'Preface' to The Infinite Conversation, pp. xiii - xxiii.
In his essay ‘Dreaming, Writing’, Blanchot observes: ‘there is an exactness of relation between the dreamed state and the written state’. There are two points to take into account here: first that the ‘dreamed state’, and the ‘written state’, are, strictly speaking, separate states of being. And second, that dreaming and writing are linked together in ‘an exactness of relation’. Surely, to point out the logic of this sentence is to complicate its simplicity? It is a straightforward assertion after all: dreaming and writing are, on the most basic level, different types of existence: am I not awake, sitting at a desk, perhaps, when I write? And asleep, recumbent, when I dream? Certainly. So then how can there be ‘an exactness of relation’ between the two?
In this reading group, our task shall be to explore two extracts of Blanchot’s works in order to gain a fuller understanding of the above assertion. Through examining his essay ‘Dreaming, Writing’, alongside the prologue from The Infinite Conversation, we shall discuss the subject of the Other who dreams and writes, alongside Blanchot’s understanding of the question presented to us by literature and language. As well as this we shall attempt to comprehend something of the ramifications of the ‘event’ that the two anonymous speakers discuss in the opening pages to The Infinite Conversation, in order to consider how such an ‘event’ could relate to the ‘center of the dream’ that Blanchot discusses in ‘Dreaming, Writing’.
The purpose of this reading group is to speculate on these two, highly enigmatic texts, and to bring together our experiences of them. Where Blanchot is concerned, it is often noted that his writing generates more questions than it answers. Our task shall be to explore just some of these questions, whilst simultaneously appreciating the necessary impossibility of their answers.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb 2013 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
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