Maurice Blanchot is one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in modern French writing. His work encompasses the writing of novels and récits as well as articles and books of philosophical (or to be precise anti-philosophical) criticism. He is one of the few significant theorists of literature of the last century to have worked outside a university context.

Blanchot was born on the 22nd September 1907 to a genteel, rural catholic family in Quain, a hamlet of Devrouze in the canton of Saint-Germain-du-bois (Saône-et-Loire) in Eastern France. In a brief autobiographical text published in Le Nouvel Observateur in November 1984, Blanchot presents the crucial moments of his life in terms of encounters with friends: Em

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First published 17 July 2001

Citation: Clark, Timothy. "Maurice Blanchot". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 July 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5175, accessed 9 February 2010.]