Text structures in Blanchot’s récit “Thomas the Obscure” Cover Image

Textotvorné stratégie Blanchotovho récitu „Temný Tomáš“
Text structures in Blanchot’s récit “Thomas the Obscure”

Author(s): Marcel Forgáč
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Aesthetics, Theory of Literature
Published by: Ústav svetovej literatúry, Slovenská akadémia vied
Keywords: Maurice Blanchot; Récit; Essays; Enigma; Poetics of microscopy;

Summary/Abstract: Maurice Blanchot’s récit Thomas the Obscure has been traditionally interpreted within the context formed by his essays and philosophical works. The underlying interpretive concept of the study, however, calls this interpretive practice into question and argues for the auto¬nomous nature of a récit. Although Blanchot does not change the scope and the topic of his essays and récits, his récit in this case differs from the intention of his essays in terms of a shift in perspective, from which particularly the agony of denoted objects is viewed and depicted. The analysis of text structures employed in Thomas the Obscure indicate how the poetics of microscopy was revitalized in Blanchot’s récit. It turns the récit into a specific form of prose, all levels of which represent the indefiniteness, enigmaticality and invisibility of the depicted by various strategies of identification – protocol language, description of details, concentration of scenes, summarization as well as formal devices and tropics.

  • Issue Year: 10/2018
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 51-68
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Slovak