Blanchot and ambiguity

Abstract

In his article "Blanchot and Ambiguity" Paolo Bartoloni investigates the enigmatic and ambiguous turn of the famous Blanchotian statement "existence without Being." The intention of the article is to locate Blanchot's remark in the context of a discussion on history and its possible end, famously initiated by Alexandre Kojève in a lecture on 4 December 1937 at the College of Sociology in Paris; and provide insights into the difference that distinguishes Kojève's reflection on the end of history, Bataille's subsequent interpretation of it, and Blanchot's original conceptualization of a state of being suspended between nature and culture, history and the end of history. The theoretical discussion is enhanced by the innovative relation that Bartoloni draws between Blanchot's notion of "existence without Being" and one of Antonioni's most significant but also enigmatic films, The Eclipse. Bartoloni focuses his attention on The Eclipse's last seven minutes, producing an interpretation which is simultaneously a concrete example of Blanchot's theory but also a critical contribution to Antonioni studies.