Blanchot and Lautréamont

Blanchot’s readings of Lautréamont are among the most important writings on this challenging author, and they are also crucial for the development of his own thinking, but they have never been discussed in depth. This essay surveys the whole range of Blanchot’s writings on Lautréamont and shows how they constitute the first considered attempt within his thinking to examine the notions of the fantastic and the image in relation to the experience of metaphor. This survey not only enables a renewed understanding of the significance of Lautréamont’s writings but also reveals how Blanchot transforms the Hegelian thinking of experience by way of its passage through literature.