International conference on “Blanchot. Writing and Power” at Universidad Diego Portales. 23, 24, 25 November 2016
By 鈥減lacing鈥� itself between literature and philosophy, in no defined position or in both places simultaneously, Blanchot鈥檚 writing constantly plays with power: his text surprises power insofar as it does not subsume itself to its law. It constitutes therefore a resistance to the centralized aspect of power.
But if writing resists language鈥檚 power and perturbs the frontiers that the latter outlines, how shall we think that resistance? Doesn鈥檛 resistance always exercise a form of power? What is power? Should it be defined and understood only as what one can do, in relation to a theory of a subject or to the systems of control that define a State. Isn鈥檛 there power there where law鈥檚 violence seems to be suspended or avoided, in those instances that seem to resist power?
This colloquium seeks to explore the relation between writing and power in Blanchot鈥檚 work, taking as a starting point this 鈥揳t least鈥� bifid condition of power. On the one hand, the difference between writing and language allows us to think writing as a resistance to the power exercised by language, to the domination that language makes possible, to its inherent violence. On the other hand, if writing is characterized by always searching for ways of resisting the exercise of power, one may ask if resisting power is not always another way of exercising power. In this case, then, what is the power of writing, of writings? How shall we think the exercise of power in Blanchot鈥檚 艙uvre, in its characteristic heterogeneity, in its way of always evading a gender, a proper field? How can we think, with or against Blanchot, the risks but also the inevitable (ab)uses of power?
The organizing committee of the conference at the University Diego Portales welcomes the submission of abstracts regarding the topics of the conference (see below).
Instructions for the submission:
– Deadline for the submission of abstracts is July 4th 2016.
– The date for the reply of the scientific committee is August 15th 2016.
– Please submit abstracts to blanchotescrituraypoder@mail.udp.cl with 鈥淏lanchot Conference: Writing and Power鈥� in the subject heading.
Norms for the submitted abstracts:
– Abstracts can be submitted in Spanish or English.
– The maximum amount of words for the submitted abstracts is 300.
Suggested topics:
– Law, writing and transgression
– Politics, solitude, friendship
– Institution and literary genders
– Knowledge and Power
– Litterature and Philosophy
– Violence, terror, resistance