OCLW Autofiction reading group on Maurice Blanchot

17.00 - 19.00

Monday 23rd January,

6th & 20th February,

6th March 2023.

 

Seminar Room 2, Wolfson College

Click here to register

Autofiction Reading Group on Maurice Blanchot

Autofiction Reading Group on Maurice Blanchot

 

The French author Annie Ernaux, “the grande dame of autofiction”, having received the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature, autofiction seems to have consolidated its status as an established literary genre. Yet, definitions of the genre are often cloudy:

What exactly is at stake in autofiction? In this reading group, we will make a joint attempt at extracting a coherent perspective on the genre of autofiction from the work of the twentieth-century French philosopher and literary author Maurice Blanchot.

Arguably a practitioner of the genre, Blanchot has also written extensively on the autobiographical writings of other authors, such as Kafka’s letters and diaries, Rousseau’s Confessions, and Proust’s Recherche, often with a keen eye for their fictional aspects.

This autofiction reading group will run from 17.00 - 19.00 on Monday 23rd January, 6th & 20th February & 6th March 2023.

Register for sessions here (in-person only): https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/oclw-autofiction-reading-group-on-maurice-blanchot-1463259

READING PROGRAMME – topics, dates and readings

In preparation for each meeting, we ask participants to carefully read one relatively concise text by Blanchot, which we will go through in detail. The small lists of thematically related texts we added are optional readings we may loosely refer to during the meetings.

Click here for PDF version of reading:

 

Autobiography and literature’s demand – January 23rd 5PM

  • Blanchot, Maurice (2003 [1959]). “Rousseau.” The Book to Come. California: Stanford University Press, pp. 41-48.

Optional additional readings:

  • Blanchot, Maurice (2003 [1959]). “The Search for Point Zero.” The Book to Come. California: Stanford University Press, pp. 202-209. 
  • Gronemann, Claudia (2019). “Autofiction.” Handbook of Autobiography/Autofiction (Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 241-246.

“Saving” the self from annihilation: diaries and/as autofiction – February 6th 5PM

  • Blanchot, Maurice (2003 [1959]). “Diary and Story.” The Book to Come. California: Stanford University Press, pp. 183-188.

Optional additional readings:

Kafka’s diaries and/as autofiction – February 20th 5PM

  • Blanchot, Maurice (1989 [1955]). “Kafka and the Work’s Demand”. The Space of Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press pp. 57-84.

Optional additional readings:

  • Blanchot, Maurice (1995 [1949]). “Kafka and Literature.” The Work of Fire. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 12-26.
  • Holland, Michael (2018). “Writing as Überfluss: Blanchot’s Reading of Kafka’s Diaries.” Understanding Blanchot, Understanding Modernism (Christopher Langlois ed.). London: Bloomsbury, pp. 342-380.

Blanchot as practitioner of autofiction – March 6th 5PM

  • Blanchot, Maurice (1992 [1973]). The Step Not Beyond. Albany: State University of New York Press, excerpt: pp. 1-13.

Optional additional readings:

  • Nelson, Lycette (1992). “Introduction.” The Step Not Beyond (Maurice Blanchot). Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. v-xxi.
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As we will not be able to circulate the reading materials, we ask you to acquire them yourselves. Fortunately, free PFDs of many of Blanchot's works in English translation can easily be found via google. If tracking down the reading materials turns out to be a problem after all, please contact kim.schoof@ou.nl.

This reading group is organised by Kim Schoof (OCLW Visiting Doctoral Student, kim.schoof@ou.nl and supported by Dr Michael Holland (Emeritus Fellow, St Hugh's).

This event will take place in Seminar Room 2, Wolfson College (accessibility information). OCLW advises caution by wearing masks and not attending if you are feeling unwell.

Note: unfortunately, there is no longer a hybrid option to attend this event.