{"product_id":"9781501384639","title":"Noir and Blanchot : Deteriorations of the Event","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eNoir and Blanchot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): William S. Allen\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn dark or desperate times, the artwork is placed in a difficult position. Optimism seems naïve, while pessimism is no better. During some of the most demanding years of the 20th century two distinctive bodies of work sought to respond to this problem: the writings of Maurice Blanchot and American film noir. Both were seeking not only to respond to the times but also to critically reflect them, but both were often criticised for their own darkness. Understanding how this darkness became the means of responding to the darkness of the times is the focus of \u003ci\u003eNoir and Blanchot\u003c\/i\u003e, which examines key films from the period (including \u003ci\u003eDouble Indemnity \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eVertigo\u003c\/i\u003e) alongside Blanchot's writings (particularly his 1948 narrative \u003ci\u003eDeath Sentence\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat emerges from this investigation is the complex manner in which these works disrupt the experience of time and the event and in doing so expose an entirely different mode of material expression.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It is tempting to respond to dark times with the light of optimism. But as William S. Allen shows in \u003ci\u003eNoir and Blanchot\u003c\/i\u003e, this is to fall into the trap of darkness. In a pathbreaking exploration of using darkness to forge a way out of darkness, Allen brings together two unlikely allies - film noir and Maurice Blanchot - to disrupt the prevailing dark times.” —\u003ci\u003eTodd McGowan, Professor of English, University of Vermont, USA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Georges Bataille had compared Maurice Blanchot with the main character of \u003ci\u003eInvisible Man, \u003c\/i\u003ebut nobody had dared pairing the elusive writer with film noir. \u003ci\u003eNoir and Blanchot\u003c\/i\u003e accomplishes this daring hermeneutic feat: it makes sense to read \u003ci\u003eDeath Sentence\u003c\/i\u003e wedged between \u003ci\u003eDouble Indemnity\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVertigo.\u003c\/i\u003e Not only are all three underpinned by Hegelian negation of negation, but also the Gothic features of Blanchot's narratives stand out. Thanks to Allen's brilliant insight, Blanchot appears less as a French Kafka than as a literary Béla Tarr.” —\u003ci\u003eJean-Michel Rabaté, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“William S. Allen once again shows himself to be an expert guide through the complexities of Blanchot's thought. In limpid and elegant prose, \u003ci\u003eNoir and Blanchot \u003c\/i\u003eengages an expansive range of references whose common element is the darkness of an age - an age that is still ours - in which existence goes on in the disaster of extreme alienation. Allen's prismatic readings of Blanchot show us as never before how to enter thinking into that darkness.” —\u003ci\u003eJeff Fort, Associate Professor of French, University of California, Davis, USA, and author of The Imperative to Write: Destitutions of the Sublime in Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett (2014)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781501384639\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40832964231374,"sku":"9781501384639","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_2cfba43c-2372-4580-a348-0672c9a13f84.jpg?v=1643361229","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781501384639","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}