Abstract
In this paper I discuss how Man of La Mancha, a story written by the Taiwanese novelist, Chu Tien-Hsin, resonates with the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot’s analysis of Franz Kafka’s reflections on death and writing. In his reading of Kafka’s writings, Blanchot notices the close and dynamic relationship between writing and death in his The Space of Literature. His primary argument is that writers are drawn to death in the same manner as they are drawn to the origin of creativity. I argue that a similar theme is also observable in Chu’s novella Man of La Mancha, which tells the story of a young freelance writer who obsessively prepares for his inevitable yet unpredictable death after experiencing a sudden illness. I use Man of La Mancha as a springboard to explore and contest Blanchot’s theory on death and writing. After giving brief overviews of Chu’s death narrative and Blanchot’s theory, I focus on Man of La Mancha in terms of Blanchot’s definition of récit (i.e. “a narrative of narrative”), and examine her story as a literary representation of the unique space containing both writing and death. I believe that a simultaneous reading of Chu and Blanchot’s discussion on death and writing will illuminate how writers situate themselves in the space of literature in which the best writing is possible.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 67-77 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Caesura—Journal of Philological and Humanistic Studies |
Volume | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |