The Instant of My Death by Blanchot, is a short prose of one's experience with death. Demeure by Derrida, is an essay that examines literature, fiction, and testimony as shrouded by the idea of instance.
I found The Instant of My Death to be a difficult read. Much of my initial confusion was rooted in his style of narration, which seemed to jump back and forth between first-person and third-person. As I pushed on through my first reading of the prose, it reminded me of stories of people's "near-death experience". Many in the scientific field refer to it as one of the brain's self-defense mechanisms to disassociate itself from the body in order to avoid feeling traumatizing pain. Two of the most common recollections of those who have experienced this are a sense or an awareness of being dead and perceiving their own body from the outside.
I felt that Demeure was somewhat outside of my reading level. There were many things that "clicked" with me, but there were also many others that simply "went over my head." I found the beginning especially difficult to read because it seemed to progress infinitely slow and the language was unorthodox to me. As I pressed on, Derrida analyzes some literary works of Blanchot including The Instant of My Death. This analysis gave me a better understanding of the prose. He also gave some background to Blanchot's story that I'd be otherwise too naïve to comprehend its significance. One example of this when Derrida explains that Vlassov was a Russian general who, along with his army, defected to the Nazis. After finishing Demeure, I was induced (practically challenged) to give Blanchot a second reading.
I'm glad that someone felt the same way I did about Demeure. Also, good call about the near-death experiences...I didn't think of it that way but it totally makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you both about the near death experiences. An out of body sensation seems to be what occurred to Blanchot when he was a young boy. As for Derrida, I think we can all agree that it was a challenging read; especially in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI also think that it's especially difficult to critically read a piece by Derrida within a week.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was definitely difficult to read in a week and discuss over the internet rather then in a classroom setting. However, after reading Derrida and then going back to read Blanchot as you did, I found the piece by Blanchot was almost completely new. Derrida opened up my mind to a whole new idea of comprehension and really challenged me to think analytically about the language and literature, not just the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this was incredibly hard to read. And the analysis was very hard to understand. I did the same exact thing, I went back and read Blanchot a second time after reading Derrida. It gave the story new life and ideas that had otherwise been over looked came to life. It actually gave the story life and character where I had seen none before.
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