Abstract

Maurice Blanchot’s works characterise time as something which is “without present, without presence [sans présent, sans présence]” . This temporality is not constituted by the passing of the moments. This temporality is not a successive, irreversible line of passing presents. That is why this time is called “counter-time [contretemps]” or “dead time [temps mort].” 1 This immobile, in-actual, non-moving, always postponed time is neither the temporality of everyday life, nor the time concept of philosophy. For Blanchot this time is the “time of narration [temps du récit]” , the time of the “narrative voice [voix narrative]” . According to Blanchot this counter-time is par excellence the time of literature, the time of art. But how can it be possible? How and where can the temporality of “the absence of time [l’absence de temps]” 2 be possible?