The Imperative to Write: Destitutions of the Sublime in Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett

Index

413 index abjection, 5, 13, 26, 44, 62, 64, 67, 73, 76, 78, 82, 84, 88, 101, 124, 117, 151–52, 160, 207–8, 286–87, 305, 310–12, 318–19; abject bodies, 62, 89, 92, 94, 98, 124; and compulsion, 284, 357; and destitution, 152, 245, 311, 314; and ideal, 89, 97; in “The Stoker,” 89–92, 94, 96–100; and sublime, 46, 239, 302; in The Unnamable, 326–28, 362n14, 365n9, 374n22. See also destitution abstraction, 105, 224, 232, 264, 294, 298, 368n31, 399n16; in Company, 338–42, 344 Adorno, Theodor, 304, 353, 387n47, 399n18, 403n4 aestheticism, 28–29, 275, 398n14; in Kafka, 28–29, 367n25, 398n14 aesthetics, 250, 258; aesthetic distance, 353, 355; aesthetic sentiments, 357; and dead women, 390n17; and the law, 121; of the sublime, 7, 45, 150–51. See also Beckett, Samuel: aesthetic positions Alighieri, Dante, 8, 343, 397nn1,5, 402n13 Al-Kassim, Dina (On Pain of Speech), 375n9 Anderson, Mark, 28, 32, 366n13, 367nn20– 23,25,27; 370nn44,47; 376n14, 379n3 anxiety, 18, 19, 26, 119, 122–23, 167, 169, 263, 269, 283, 328, 340, 347, 350, 355, 366n16, 382n8 appearance, 29, 30, 32, 34, 49, 60, 68, 71, 75, 90; before an audience, 75; before a judge, 48, 53; and corpse, 258; deceptive/ false, 142–43; as diabolical, 29, 77, 90, 143; fictive, 95; of figure, 254, 269; 145, 147, 340; and image, 256; of the law, 139; and mask, 255; mere appearance, 29, 30, 32, 141–42; outward/external, 21, 28, 29, 251; as performance , 49, 56, 75; of Gregor Samsa, 77–82, 87; and schematism, 250–51; as Schein, 106; social, 30, 59, 80; and speech, 90, 93–94; of the stoker, 89; stripped away, 241–42; sublime , 101; of transcendence (ideal), 105–6; of the writer/of writing, 48–51, 53, 58, 74–75, 77. See also disappearance; ghost; image; phantom; specter art, 5, 7, 33, 265, 276, 300–4, 308, 312, 355; as appearance, 77, 99, 258; for art’s sake, 398n14, 403n7; exigency of, 176; in “A Hunger Artist,” 122, 146–48, 153–54; in “Josefine the Singer,” 160; and law, 177; and life, 22, 29–30, 165, 168, 367n23; and philosophy, 351; presentative task of, 145; and religion, 367n28; as remnant, 32–33; schematism as art, 217, 250–51, 253; and self, 30; and sublime, 25 autobiography, 10, 195; autobiographical tradition , 362n18; and fiction, 180, 184, 191, 269, 279, 318; and writing, 10–11, 20, 38, 140, 293, 370n45. See also compulsion; exigency; fiction; haunting; voice automatism: bodily, 70, 78–79, 93, 153; in “A Hunger Artist,” 157–58; mechanical, 108, 114–15, 124; psychical, 157; and writing, 221. See also compulsion autothanatography, 362n18 414 index Badiou, Alain: on Beckett, 311, 330–31, 399n20, 401n2 Bataille, Georges, 280, 283, 353, 388n10, 396n42 Baudelaire, Charles, 199, 275, 306 Bauer, Felice, 17, 47, 124, 140–43, 364n4, 371n50, 371n6 Beckett, Samuel, ix, xi, 1, 3–5, 8, 9, 11, 12–14, 33, 34, 47, 148, 166, 233, 245, 276, 293; aesthetic positions, 8, 299–304; “All Strange Away,” 296; autobiographical dimension, 318, 331–33, 402n12; Company, 11, 12, 294–95, 297–98, 305, 311, 330–45, 362n20, 388n2, 399n15, 401nn4,6,10, 402nn11,12; Endgame, 303; “Fizzles,” 296; How It Is, 305, 330, 397n2; Ill Seen Ill Said, 368n31, 400n30, 401n4, 402n15; “Imagination Dead Imagine,” 296; “Lessness,” 296; Letters, 397nn1,5,10, 399n24, 401n32; “The Lost Ones,” 296; Malone Dies/Malone meurt, 294, 296, 314–22, 325, 328, 344, 397n2, 399n23, 402n12; Mercier et Camier, 309–14, 399n25; Molloy, 294, 296, 312–14, 318, 321–22, 328, 348–49, 352, 384n26, 398n13, 400n28; Murphy, 322, 326, 341, 401n32; “Ping,” 296; and sentimentality, 294, 298–300, 305–7, 315, 320, 328, 343–45; “Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit,” 8, 299–309, 397nn1,3,7,9,10; Unnamable/ Innommable, 1, 5, 12, 294, 296, 300, 303–4, 306–7, 310–12, 314–15, 318, 320–29, 330, 332, 334–35, 344, 347–56, 384n26, 399n19, 401n32; Worstward Ho, 14, 308, 345–46, 397n4, 401n4, 402n15 Benjamin, Walter, 22, 377n21 Benkard, Ernst (Das ewige Antlitz), 264–65, 393n23 Benveniste, Emile, 325, 364n27, 401n34 Bersani, Leo and Ulysse Dutoit, 362n16, 397n9, 399nn15,18; 401n10 Bident, Christophe, 190, 282–83, 381n2, 396nn41,46,52 Blanchot, Maurice, ix, 1–5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12–13, 21, 33, 38, 49, 120, 163, 293, 294, 296, 307, 348, 353–57, 361nn4,5,8, 369n40, 376n13, 381nn3,5, 382n10, 383n13, 383–84n21, 385n30, 387nn47–50...