“Channels of Interference”: Maurice Blanchot and Emil Cioran

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of “literary interference” developed by the pioneer of polysystem theory, Itamar Even-Zohar, and expanded by other scholars, as well as on various interpretations of intertextuality, this article compares two twentieth century thinkers: the French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist Maurice Blanchot and the Romanian-born French essayist and philosopher Emil (E. M.) Cioran. The article uses Even-Zohar’s notion of “channel of interference,” and presents three such “channels” and their results that shed light on the relationship between Blanchot’s and Cioran’s works. The first “channel of interference” that I have termed the “change of epoch,” borrowing a phrase from Blanchot, led to their choice of fragmentary writing. The second, existentialism, might be able to bring their works together, especially through the way they treat the subject of suicide, focussing on Blanchot’s The Space of Literature and Cioran’s On the Heights of Despair. Finally, through the third “channel of interference,” the two thinkers’ scepticism, the article explores their engagement with the concepts of passion/passivity/patience.