Genealogies of the Text
Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France

In this 1995 book, which includes a substantial introduction, Jeffrey Mehlman confronts the politically devastating resonances in the work of several leading French writers. The essays focus on the series of enigmas surrounding the 'Blanchot affair' - a scandal provoked by Mehlman's revelation in 1977 that Maurice Blanchot, one of the tutelary figures of contemporary French thought, had in the 1930s been a prominent fascist journalist. Mehlman takes the issue of Blanchot's forgotten political essays deep into the most revered - and misunderstood - of his novels, L'Arrêt de mort. Using this affair as a point of departure, Mehlman sheds light on the question of the usability of psychoanalysis for literary readings (examining, for example, Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Valéry); he also investigates the ideological and political connotations of similar literary and theoretical material. The volume as a whole provides a consistently provocative meditation on literature, ethics, and the experience of the French in World War II.

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'… heuristic value of Mehlman's approach is undeniable …' Contemporary European History

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Product details

• Date Published: November 2006
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521032353
• length: 276 pages

• dimensions: 215 x 137 x 15 mm
• weight: 0.359kg
• availability: Available