The youngest day

Abstract

From fragments of L'Écriture du désastre and other writings by Maurice Blanchot, this article deals with the relationship between history (or the other history), its ruptures and disaster. To address this issue, Blanchot draws on authors such as Wittgenstein, Hölderlin, Kafka, Melville (especially Bartleby the Scrivener) and Levinas. Based on these authors, Blanchot develops his thinking about the messianic aporia, and seeks to understand its relationship with totalitarianism. Particularly important is the influence that Emmanuel Levinas, the great Jewish thinker, versed in the writings of the Talmud, exerts on Blanchot, who, in turn, sees himself in the delicate situation of approaching messianic from his position as an intellectual outside the Jewish milieu. Moreover, the comparison made by Blanchot between the legacy of Jewish thought, often denied by modern Western society, and classical Greek culture, traditionally exalted as the cradle of civilization, worthy of nostalgic feelings, is examined. The ideas of time and the end of time are also discussed, as well as the deferment of this end, and, finally, the imminence of disaster.