Origins & Early Life

Maurice Blanchot ( blon-SHOH; French: [blɑ̃ʃo]; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. Blanchot was born in the village of Quain (Saône-et-Loire) on 22 September 1907. Blanchot studied philosophy from 1926 at the University of Strasbourg, where he represented monarchist views, was a committee member of a student association modelled on the German Burschenschaften, and became a close lifelong friend of the Lithuanian-born French Jewish phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

On his friend's recommendation, he read Martin Heidegger's newly published Being and Time and described it as an "intellectual shock". In 1930 he earned his DES (diplôme d'études supérieures), roughly equivalent to an M.A. at the University of Paris, with a thesis titled "La Conception du dogmatisme chez les sceptiques anciens d'après Sextus Empiricus" ("The Conception of Dogmatism in the Ancient Sceptics According...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

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