In certain key respects, 1943 marked a turning point in the war. Increasingly, victory seemed assured. However, the backdrop to this gradually improving situation was one of widespread and unremitting destruction.

In the essays from that year, Blanchot writes from a position of almost total detachment from day-to-day events, now that all of his projects and involvements have come to naught. As he explores and promotes works of literature and ideas, he privileges those with the capacity to sustain a human perspective that does not merely contemplate ruin and disaster but sees them as the...

In certain key respects, 1943 marked a turning point in the war. Increasingly, victory seemed assured. However, the backdrop to this gradually improving situation was one of widespread and unremitting destruction.

In the essays from that year, Blanchot writes from a position of almost total detachment from day-to-day events, now that all of his projects and involvements have come to naught. As he explores and promotes works of literature and ideas, he privileges those with the capacity to sustain a human perspective that does not merely contemplate ruin and disaster but sees them as the...

The fourth volume of Blanchot's war-time chronicles reflects a commitment to silence and a detachment from circumstance, as Germany's occupation of France reaches its end. Convinced that disaster is now insuperable, Blanchot neutralizes the nihilism of that position through making it the basis of a new language of human relation.

The fourth volume of Blanchot's war-time chronicles reflects a commitment to silence and a detachment from circumstance, as Germany's occupation of France reaches its end. Convinced that disaster is now insuperable, Blanchot neutralizes the nihilism of that position through making it the basis of a new language of human relation.