LOWRIE Blanchot and the Death of Vergil

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Blanchot and the Death of VirgilAuthor(s): Michèle LowrieSource: Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, No. 52, Re-Presenting Virgil:Special Issue in Honor of Michael C. J. Putnam (2004), pp. 211-225Published by: Fabrizio Serra editore

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212 MichèleLovme

itage that was faltering n thè Second World War, when DerToddes Vergilwas composed.5 Blanchot's awareness of his own

ghosts is more questionable.JacquesDerridaanalyzes thè Latinityof thè Europeaninstitu-

tion of literature n a discussion of a piece by Blanchot about anincident that also occurred in thè Second World War.6 NeitherBlanchot nor Derrida shows any awareness that L'instantde mamortneatly reverses thè fates of a man and a manuscriptfromthose in or about Virgil.7Aeneas hésitâtes over killing Turnus,

but kills him nevertheless; Blanchot'sprotagonist faces a deathsquad, but due to an interruption,is released. Virgil decided tobum thè incompleteAeneid,yet thè text survived,while Blanchotteils of a manuscriptstolen and never recovered. The distancebetween Virgil and Blanchot is one text, Broch's Der Tod des

Vergil,a lyric novel spanningthe time between Virgil's certaintyof his upcoming death and the death itself. A large proportionofthis novel has to do with the décision firstto destroy,then to savethe Aeneid.Both L'instantde ma mortand Blanchot'sbook of criti-

cism,Le livreà

venir,revolve around

gapsthat

openin time and

the things, ideas mostly, but also shifts in reality, that inhabitthèse gaps. While Broch focuses on thè fate of Virgil's manu-

scriptand the poet's own death, Blanchot'sveiled autobiographi-cal account bringsback Aeneas' hésitation and transfersTurnus'death to the author. The shift from clemency denied to a contin-

gent escape marks Blanchot as modem. His death sentence isnever annulled, and we cannot imagine Turnus in the resultingpositionof the Irvingdead.

Blanchot instantiates the modernist break from antiquity.He

appréciâtes he value for Broch of a myth symbolizing«le savoiret le destin de toute la civilisationoccidentale»,and citesJoyce'sUlyssesas a parallelto Broch's mythic appropriationof antiqui-ty.8 In L'instantde ma mort, Blanchot overtly cites a modem

myth instead. The coïncidence of the date inscribed on the pro-

5. Livre above, n. 2), p. 153.6. M. Blanchot, L'instant de ma mort, bilingual édition, trans. E. Rottenberg,

Stanford 2000, originally published 1994; in the same volume, J. Derrida, Demeure:Fiction and

Testimony,rans. E.

Rottenberg, pp. 20-25.7. 1 suggest some parallels at Literature s a Latin Word, «Vergilius» 47, 2001, p.29.

8. G. Steiner, Homerand Virgiland Broch,review of S.J. Harrison, OxfordReadingsin Virgil'sAeneid,Oxford 1990,«London Review of Books» i2july 1990,p. 10,élevâtes









214 MichèleLovme

Aeneas' hésitation before killing Turnus is such a gap. Turnus*

plea for mercy gives him pause (cunctantem,Aen. 12.940),10

until

he sees the baldric Turnus has despoiled from Pallas. Aeneas is

then overcome by fiiry and avenges Pallas in a metaphoric sacri-

fice (immolât, 12.949). The baldric is a work of art, described in a

brief ekphrasis when Turnus took it from Pallas' dead body

(10.495-509). Its beauty is apparent: it is embossed in gold; its

craftsman has a significant name, Clonus Eurytides, suggesting«wide confusion»; it depicts the Danaids' morally reprehensible

(nefas, 10.497) slaughter of their husbands on their wedding night.The narrative pause of ekphrasis does not belong in the rapid ac-

tion of book 12,n

but the emphasis in book 10 on Turnus' future

regret and hatred of thèse spoils joins morality with aesthetics.

Since seeing this object tilts the balance from clemency toward

vengeance, the question is the effect of the work of art. Aeneas'

perception of it, though visual, is not aesthetic contemplation.He rather sees it as spoils and a reminder of pain (oculispostquamsaeui monimenta doloris / exuuiasque hausit, 12.945-946). Its mean-

ingfor him is

strictly personal.The reader must infer the monu-

ment's commemorative fonction, as well as the symbolism of the

Danaid myth for Pallas and Turnus, young men eut down before

marriage.12For Virgil, the baldric's aesthetic quality yields to its

moral significance. Turnus committed nefas in despoiling Pallas,and the object reminds Aeneas of his moral obligation of

vengeance. The object retains its beauty and its capacity to sig-

nify- it is an insigne (12.944), mark of honor and emblem - but

thèse aspects are a surplus and do not contribute to Aeneas'

décision.

The temporal gap of hésitation pertains not only to Aeneas askiller, but to Turnus as he realizes he will die (cunctatur,12.916).His hésitation makes him vulnérable (cunctanti, 12.919). Strongémotions inhabit both characters at this moment. For Turnus, it

is confusion (12.914-915).Aeneas rather pauses in the midst of

frenzy and then passionately résumes his anger (12.938-939; unis

10. M. C. J. Putnam, The Hésitation of Aeneas, in Virgiïs Aeneid. Interpretation nd

Influence,Chapel Hill 1995,p. 166 n. 3, calls this moment a «tense pause for contem-

plationof words before action».

11.M. C. J. Putnam, Virgil'sEpieDesigns: Ekphrasis n theAeneid,New Haven 1998,

p. 190suggests time nearly stops in the balteusekphrasis.12.S. J. Harrison, Virgil:Aeneid10, Oxford 1997,corrected édition, ad Aen. 10.497-

499-







Blanchotand the Death of Virgil 215

accensuset ira / ternbilis, 12.946-947). The plea for mercy (12.934-

935) and for a cessation of hatred (ultenus ne tende odiis, 12.938)

only temporarily calms passion. Virgil, though psychologicallyacute, does not know the interiority of the modems. These émo-

tions are told, not shown.13

When Virgil faced his own death, according to legend, his con-

cern was with the work of art. The most expansive of the ac-

counts in the Vitae Virgilianae attributes VirgiTs desire to burn

the Aeneidstrictly to aesthetics:

At which time, when he feit himselfweighed down with illness,he of-ten andwith greatinsistencesought his scrollcases in order to bum the

Aeneid.When thèse were refusedhim, he orderedit to be bumed in his

will, as a thing not corrected and unfinished. But Tucca and Var[i]uswamed that Augustus would not allow that. Then he bequeathed his

writingsto this same Var[i]usand also to Tucca on this condition, that

they not publishanythingwhich had not been edited by him and that

they leave even the unfinishedUnes, f therewere any.

(Vita Donati aneti 52-53)M

Brodi follows this version,15 with two important exceptions. Inaddition to aesthetic concerns, Broch's Virgil recognizes the

Aeneid's moral failings, and Augustus himself persuades him to

change his mind. Where Virgil separates the aesthetic from the

moral and politicai aspects of the work of art in the face of death,

Broch brings them together.Broch's Virgil upbraids himself for a moral failure: he has not

helped humankind as a person or through his art. He répudiâtes

beauty for its own sake («wenn ... die Schönheit sich als Selbst-

zweck vordrängt, die Kunst in ihren Wurzeln angegriffen wird»

154). His Aeneid is merely beautifiü and should therefore be de-

stroyed.

war er nun selber zum Wachen bestellt? Nimmermehr nimmermehr

war er dazu fähig, er, der Hilfsunfähige, der Dienstunwillige, der

Wortemacher,der sein Werk vernichtenmusste, weil das Menschliche,weil menschliches Tun und menschliche Hilfsbedürftigkeitihm so

13.Putnam (Hésitation,above n. 10) sees Aeneas' hésitation as «a révélation of in-

ner doubt and uncertainty» (155),and emphasizes inwardness (156,158).We observe

this inwardness, however, from without.14.G. Brugnoli and F. Stok (eds.), Vitae VergilianaeAntiquae, Rome 1997, pp.

100-101.

15.For Brocn s knowledge of the ancient biographical sources, T. Ziolkowski,

Virgiland theModems,Princeton 1993,pp. 211-213,17-218.







2i6 MichèleLowne

wenig bedeutet hatten, dass er davon nichts hatte liebend festhaltenoder gar dichten können, und alles unaufgeschrieben geblieben war,

lediglichunnütz zur Schönheit verklärtund verherrlicht.

(248)16

The debate between Augustus and Virgil in the third part, Erde-

Die Erwartung, revolves on whether art can achieve the same

moral status as politicai action. In VirgiTs view, Augustus has

achieved a true figure (Gleichnis 418, «metaphor» 379), while his

own is false.17A metaphor for what, he does not say. Broch's

highest aim is to achieve understanding; this would help human-ity, and hère Augustus falls short. The merely politicai, like the

merely aesthetic, is insufficient. Broch craves something fiirther

that would raise human endeavor to a higher level. Virgil in the

Aeneid marks the major ekphrases with some sign of incompré-hension or incompletion.18 The most famous is of Aeneas as he

lifts up the shield prophesying Roman history: rerumque gnarus

imagine gaudet (8.730). Broch attributes to Virgil résignation about

his capacity to join the beautiful to understanding, but a desire to

transcend this limitation.

Sacrifice and the law are areas of incompréhension touching on

art and morality for both Virgil and Broch. Aeneas and Broch's

Virgil hâve greater respect for the law than the authority figuresin either work. Aeneas welcomes a duel with Turnus and calls

the treaty pads leges (12.112);he is dismayed when thèse laws are

broken (12.314-315).Juno, however, takes advantage of fate's

omissions (nulla fati quod lege tenetur, 12.819) until Jupiter forces

her to yield. In Broch, Virgil raises the law to transcendence,while Augustus takes it as merely mortai.

das Unendliche ist es, von dem aller Zusammenhangim Seienden ge-tragen wird, von dem das Gesetz getragen wird und die Form des

16. «Was he now placed on guard? Never Never would he be fit for it, he whowas incapable of any help, unwilling for any service, he thè mere word-maker whomust needs destroy his work because the humane, thè round of human action andthe human need for help, had meant so little to him that everything which he shouldhave retained and depicted in love was never written down, but simply and useless-

ly transfigurée and magnified to beauty... .» (225-226).17.See F. Cox, Envoi: the Death of Virgil,in The CambridgeCompatitotio Virgil,ed.

C. Martindale,Cambridge 1997,pp. 331-332

orVirgil's

moral failure in Broch.18. See A. Barchiesi, VirgilianNarrative:Ecphrasis, n The CambridgeCompatitotio

Virgil,ed. C. Martindale, Cambridge 1997,pp. 275-276and Rappresentazioni el doloree interpretazionenell'Eneide,«Ant. u. Abend.» 40, 1994, pp. 109-124;and Putnam (De-

signs, above, n. 11),passim.







BUnchot and the Death ofVirgil 217

Gesetzes,ja ebendarum auch das Schicksalselber: das unendliche Ver-

borgenseinderUnendlichkeit,dennoch die Menschenseele.

(VirgiTshoughts357)9

«Die Ordnung wird die des Menschen sein ... die des menschlichenGesetzes.»

«Gesetze? als ob wir damit nicht überreichlichgesegnet wären In

nichts ist der Senat so fruchtbar wie in der Erzeugung schlechter

Gesetze ... das Volk will Ordnung,doch sicherlichkeine hinterhältigenGesetze, durch die es mitsamt seinem Staat zerstörtwird ... aber davon

verstehstdu wirklichnichts».(Virgilspeaksfirst,Augustussecond,416)

0

The Augustus of thè Vita Donati aucti similarly disregards the

law. A sets of verses attributed to him argues that preserving a

work of art is good reason for breaking the law (frangaturpotius

legumuenerandapotestas,58).Broch's Virgil would obey a higher law and sacrifice the poem.

In killing Turnus, Aeneas makes the classic gesture of human sac-

rifice (12.948) in the foundation of a state.21For Broch, however,

the sacrifice is of the work of art and thefoundation that of a new

religion. His proto-Christian Virgil, himself incapable of per-

forming the redeeming act, would prepare for the coming of 'the

bringer of salvation and révélation' (382) with the Aeneid's sacri-

fice. Augustus' reaction shows how this idea boggies the paganmind.

«Ich kann und darfsie nicht fertigstellen... ich darfes um so weniger

tun, alsdies die unrichtigsteVorbereitungwäre.»

«Undwie wäre die richtigezu bewerkstelligen?»«DurchdasOpfer.»«Opfer?»«So ist es.»«Wofür willstdu opfern?Wem willst du opfern?»«Den Göttern.»

19.«it was the infinite which bore all the connotations within existence, bearing

the law, bearing the form of the law, and precisely for this reason bearing faith itself;

the infinite forever hidden, but for all that the soul of man» (325).

20. «The order will be a human one ... the order of human law.'

'Laws? As if we were not more than blessed with them In nothing is the Senate

so fruitful as in the enactment ofbad laws ... the

peoplewish for order but

certainlynot for insidious laws by which they and their state are endangered ... you speak of

things you do not understand.'» (377)·21.H. Arendt traces thè link between violence and beginning to both bibhcal and

classical traditions, OnRevolution,London 1963,p. 20.









Bfonchot nd theDeathofVirgil 219

neas to give up his hatred: ultenusne tendeodiis(12.938).Authorialcomment revealsthatTurnus would one day himselfhâte (pderit,10.505)hè spoils he took and thè day he took them. But Aeneasdoes not give up his hatred,because of Turnus' own hatredin de-

spoiling Pallas (10.490-500).Broch'sVirgil, however, cannot tol-erateAugustus'accusationof hatred.

«Vergil...»«Ja,Augustus.«Duhassestmich.»

«Octavian »«NennemichnichtOctavian, adu michhassest.»«Ich .. ich hassedich?»«Und wie du mich hassest »Schrillvor Schärfewar des CäsarsStimme.

(426-427)M

Virgil soon capitulâtes(430-432).VirgiTssusceptibilityto Augus-tus' accusationforms the heart of Broch's criticismof the Aeneid.

The ancientpoet views people from the outside; his vehicles for

expressingémotion aremetaphor,simile, and the speech. He hasnot yet attainedthe interiorityfirst found in Augustine. Brodi's

Virgil criticizeshimself for lack of feeling: «unbewegt hatte er

Menschenleidbeobachtet»; «nichts waren ihm die Menschen»

(168-169).When he yields to Augustus and sparesthe Aennd,he

achieves a clemency beyond the powers of Aeneas, because it is

Christian.Broch,however, fiilly understands he aestheticneces-

sity of the death of Turnus. Virgil muses that if Aeneas had

spared Turnus, «er wäre keineswegs zu einem Beispiel nach-

strebenswerterMilde, vielmehr zu dem eines langweiligen Un-

helden geworden, den darzustellen kein Gedicht hätte wagendürfen»(149).Art' concern is to maintaina balance:«Mildeund

Grausamkeit vereinigt im Gleichgewicht der Schönheits-

sprache»(150).Broch'snew aesthetics is a Christianone, where

the moral status of the work of art brings fulfillment to what

would otherwisebe emptybeauty.

24. «'Virgil ...'

'Yes, Augustus?'

'You hâte me.''Octavian '

'Cali me not Octavian since you hâte me.'

... I hate you?''And how you hate me.' Caesar's voice was stiriliwith bitterness» (387).







220 MichèleLowne

If Broch's critique lends thè ancient author life,25Blanchot inVinstant de ma mortwould definitivelykill him - if he could pre-vent his return as a ghost. Blanchot turnshis modernity contraryto Broch's. Where Broch fills five hundred pages with VirgiTsthoughts and words, Blanchotwrites a récit of under five. This

sparenessaccordswith a modernist occlusion of sources. His ear-lier criticai work on Brochin Le livreà venir,however, shows heunderstood thè stakes in thè destruction of lives and

manuscripts.Brochis a directpredecessorto L'instantde mamort,

Virgila latent one.Unlike VirgiTsTurnus or Broch's Virgil, thè character con-

frontingdeath does not literallydie in Blanchot. The moment of

suspensionthat opens up never ends, but extends infinitely.Thismoment is empty. For Broch,such temporalgaps are transitional

spacesof potentiality,characterizedby thè phrase«no longer andnot yet».

«Nichtmehrund noch nicht» , derCäsarwog, unangenehm erührt,dieWorteab-, «dazwischen lafftder eereRaum...»

(368)26

Broch traces such gapsback to Virgiland has his Virgilcite Geor-

gias1.32-35, here the constellationsmake room for Augustusas afuture god (419-420).

7The joining of the ruler with the heavensis an act in préparation;the new order is imminent. For Blan-

chot, the gap is rather thè very nature of death. Facedwith the

firingsquad of the Nazi army, his protagonistexpériencesdeathwithout dying. The aliénation involved is not just the distancethat separatesthe speaking «I» from his memory of himself as

young-

thè piece opens with «Je me souviens d'un jeunehomme» (2)- but a lastingdivision within the self: we are neversure of the speaker's dentitywith the young man.

Jesais le sais-je queceluiquevisaientdéjà esAllemands,'attendant

plus queTordreinal,éprouvaalorsun sentimentde légèretéextraordi-naire,une sorte de béatitude riend'heureux ependant), allégressesouveraine? arencontre e la mortet de la mort?

25. Ziolkowski (above, n. 15),pp. 219-222argues that Broch was not profoundlyinterested in

Virgil,but I

hope my analysisshows otherwise.

26. «'No longer and not yet', - Caesar, much dismayed, was weighing thèsewords - 'and between them yawns an empty space'» (335).

27. See Ziolkowski (above, n. 15), pp. 214-215 or Broch's adaptations of Voss's

translations.







BUnchot and the Death ofVirgil 221

A sa place,je ne chercheraipas à analyserce sentiment de légèreté. Ilétait peut-être tout à coup invincible.Mort - immortel. Peut-être l'ex-tase. Plutôt le sentiment de compassion pour l'humanité souffrante,lebonheur de n'être pas immortel ni éternel. Désormais, il fut lié à la

mort,parune amitiésubreptice.(4)î8

Hère the expérience of thè gap is resolutely internai; it is a feel-

ing of death permanently within. The difficulty of describing this

expérience gives pause. The speaker questions his knowledge,

offers alternatives, analyzes from a distance the unanalyzable.The expérience is unknowable because it fuses death with life.

Demeuraitcependant,au moment où la fusilladen'était plus qu'en at-

tente, le sentiment de légèreté que je ne sauraistraduire:libéré de la

vie? l'infini qui s'ouvre? Ni bonheur, ni malheur. Ni l'absence de

crainteet peut-être déjà le pas au-delà.Je sais, j'imagine que ce senti-

ment inanalysablechangea ce qui lui restait d'existence. Comme si la

mort hors de lui ne pouvait désormaisque se heurter à la mort en lui.

"Je uisvivant.Non, tu es mort".

(6, 8)29

This careftil reader of Broch reduces important thèmes to a mini-

mum. Sacrifice leaves its trace only in the slowness of the protag-onist's walk: he advanced «d'une manière presque sacerdotale»

(2). The sovereign control of Broch's Augustus becomes a feel-

ing, «allégresse souveraine» (4). The soldiers letting the youngman escape are Russian and disobey the commands of their Ger-

man leaders. Any sovereign décision dissipâtes. Law and moral-

ity are a sham. The young man is saved by the accident of inter-

ruption and «peut-être Terreur de l'injustice» (2). The killing of

28. «I know - do I know it - that the one at whom the Germans were already aim-

ing, awaiting but the final order, experienced then a feeling of extraordinary light-

ness, a sort of béatitude (nothing happy, however) - sovereign dation? The encoun-

ter of death with death?

In his place, I will not try to analyze. He was perhaps suddenly invincible. Dead -

immortal. Perhaps ecstasy. Rather thè feeling of compassion for suffering human-

ity, the happiness of not being immortal or eternai. Henceforth, he was bound to

death by a surreptitious friendship.» (5).

29. «There remained, however, at the moment when the shooting was no longerbut to come, thè feeling of lightness that I would not know how to translate: freed

from life? the infinite opening up?Neither

happiness,nor

unhappiness.Nor the ab-

sence of fear and perhaps already the step beyond. I know, I imagine that this unana-

lyzable feeling changed what there remained for him of existence. As if the death

outside of him could only henceforth collide with the death in him. am alive. No,

you are dead.'» (7, 9).







222 MichèleLovme

farmboys and burning of their farmscontrastswith thè sparingof thè manor house and thè nobles such thatthè young man, whofeels the injustice, gives up his ecstasy for survivor guilt (6).There is no Christian édemption.

The most decisive différencefrom Brochand from Virgilis theabsence of any décision. Aeneas' hésitation over killing Turnusmakes his action a décision. Virgil revokes his décision to burnthe Aeneid.Blanchot'syoung man is dismissedby accident: battlebreaks out nearby, the lieutenant needs to investigate, the sol-

diersaiming at him happento be Russian. One waves him awaywithout thè authorityto do so. Being targetedby the firingsquadwas as much an accident as his dismissal. He was saved, his

manuscript ost, both for reasons similarly contingent. The lieu-tenant took the manuscripton the mistaken assumptionit per-haps contained war plans (6). Aesthetics and moralityare equallybeside the point.

Blanchot's self-alienation results in other divisions. The lost

manuscript's importance émerges only in a second section oftext. The two narratives,one about a person, the other a work of

art, is a Virgilianghost. A division between criticism and art dif-ferentiates Blanchot from Broch,who unités them. In the second

section, Blanchot's protagonist visits Malraux, who also lostwork in the war and whose comments establish the différence:«"Ce n'étaient que des réflexions sur Tait, faciles à reconstituer,tandis qu'un manuscrit ne saurait l'être."» (io). The contrastidentifies the manuscriptas itself a work of art, not mere reflec-tions on it. In the tradition,Virgil'sscholiast has Augustus con-

templatebreakingthe law to save the labor of a work of art,con-

demned by its author on aestheticgrounds; Broch'sVirgilhallu-cinates for hours on the aesthetic object's inabilityto answer to

moralitys higher daims. Blanchotsweeps away such agonizing:«Qu'importe.»(io). His own reflections on art, however, showhe had already given considérable thought to books withinbooks.

The projectedbooks Blanchotanalyzesfor Proust,Joubert,Ar-

taud,Broch etal, in Lelivreà venirare deferred o the futureor to

nowhere, a significantdifférence from L'instantde ma mort:his

manuscript existed, but was lost. When Blanchot identifies as

modem thè desire to destroy an incomplete manuscript,a mo-ment of indistinctionblendsVirgilwith Broch.

Il se rappellea légendeselonlaquelle,aumomentde mourir,e poète







Blanchotand theDeath ofVirgil 223

voulut détruire l'Enéide,ce poème resté inachevé. Voilà une penséemoderne.

(143)30

Blanchotputs severalturnsin the traditionshe outlines in Le livre

à venir:unlike the authors who would destroy their works, he

wanted to recuperatehis manuscript.His desire to publishis per-

haps only possible in the manuscript'sabsence: authors resist

publicationand the forces that drive them againsttheir will. He

crédits Mallarméwith calling the Book the force beyond the

reader,society, the state, and culture that drives authorsto pub-lish. In thè face of its power, «les vivants sont bien faibles»(Livre

281).The power of the Book drivesthe productionof Blanchot's

récitof his manuscript'soss half a Centuryater.The story makes

partialgood of the loss by inscribingit into a tradition where

death hangs over people and manuscriptsalike. Minimalistré-

duction, négation, and reversaiare marks of the modem work's

fruitlessstruggleagainst ntertextuality.

VirgiTsshadow extends into the twentieth Century,but Blan-

chot asksnot only «Whatis Virgilto us?»,but «What is Rome?».In suggestingthat Rome'sunifyinghéritageweakened duringthe

Second World War (Livre153),he follows ErnstRobert Curtius,an Alsatianwho wrote his Europäische iteraturund hteinüches

MitteUlterBern1948)at this time partiallyas a politicaigesture to

remind Europeans of this shared héritage.31Derrida brings up

Latinityand the institutionof literatureas understoodby Curtius

in his analysisof L'instantde ma mort(Demeure 3). He decon-

structs the distinctionbetween literature,«a Latin word», and

testimony. Blanchot'srécit,however, occupies not only a literary

zone of indistinction,but a politicaione. The institutionof litera-ture in ali its Latinitywas supposedto hold Europe together. Vir-

30. «He remembers thè legend according to which, at thè moment of dying, thè

poet wanted to destroy thè Aeneid,this poem which remained incomplete. There is

a modern thought.» He explores this notion in Mallarmé (280 . ). Compare Ovid's

burning (a copy of) thè Métamorphoses t Tristia 1.7.16and thè legend of Rimbaud's

attempt to bum his papers, W. Mason, The Elaborations:Rimbaudat thè Mercyofthe

Biographers, Harper's Magazine» October 2002, p. 92.

31.R. Brague, Europe: a voie romaine,Paris 1993, p. 23: «Quant a 1Europe au sens

étroit, il y a un trait qu'elle est peut-êtreseule à

posséder,seule à

revendiquer,et

quiest en tout cas ce que personne ne lui dispute. C'est la romanité. Ou plus précisé-ment la latinité.La «romanité» a été revendiquée par Byzance ..., puis par Moscou ...

Elle l'a même été par l'Empire ottoman, ... Mais de la latinité, personne d'autre que

l'Europe n'a voulu».







224 MichèleLowne

gii in particularoffers a model of thè resolution into cultural

unity of warringfactions.32When Blanchot at thè end of his life

gives an account of his expériencein thè Second World War andthè résultant internai division he has suffered ever since, Virgiland thè Europeantradition of his reception return as ghosts re-

minding us of what was falling apart.33The héritage meant to

unify Europe, let us remember, is of a ChristianizedRome, but

another figure haunts L'instantde ma mort,and this is thè Jew.

Again, Broch dwells in thè gap, and here aesthetics meets poli-tics.

When Blanchotwrote his narrativeof near-deathat thè end of

thè War, he had been attackedfor anti-semitism n his nationalis-

tic writings duringthè i93o's,34n which he critiquedFrench re-

publicanismfrom thè right.35Blanchot défends himself againstthè accusation of complicity by showing that he too suffered

from German oppression, and thè contingency of his escapematches that of many Jews who survived. He too experienced

Irvingdeath. The indistinction between literature and testimony

matters for politicai as well as aesthetic reasons. We cannot tellhow much Blanchot is making up to exonerate himself.But if lit-

erature in the Christianized Latin tradition binds Europe to-

gether, can the beauty and literarityof Blanchot' story36winhim forgiveness?

Broch's biography shows that Der Tod des Vergil s not onlyabout the relation of aesthetics to politics,but served as their in-

tersection in its author's life. His conversion to Catholicism ac-

cords with the novel's strong use of the tradition of a proto-

ChristianVirgil, but Broch was born Jewish. He worked on anearly version of the project while imprisonedby the Nazis for

32. 1 discuss Curtius and Virgil (Literature, bove, n. 7), pp. 33-35.

33.S. Ungar, Scandai and Aflereffect:Blanàiot and FranceSince 1930,Minneapolis1995»pp· 85-93examines Blanchot's critique of Curtius, whose model he rejects as a

misunderstanding of France and French literature. Ungar and Blanchot ignore the

Latinity of Curtius' project.34.J. Mehlman, Legaciesof Anti-Semitism in France, Minneapolis 1983, pp. 6-22;

Blanchotat Combat:Of

Literature ndTerror,

reated with nuanceby Ungar (above,

n.

33),pp. 84, 96, 116,153,162-164.

35.Ungar (above, n. 33),p. 97.

36. D. Cahen, Qui a peur de la littérature?,Paris 2001, pp. 275-276examines how

Blanchot, here as elsewhere, always returns to the topic of literature.







Bfonchotand the Death of Virgil 225

three weeks at Bad Aussee in 1938.37He later describes in a letter

his work on the novel during his imprisonment.38

The book was written not as a book, but as a kind of private diary,that

is, it began as a book, was continued as a diaryand then the final partwas written as a book again.While Iwas writingit as a diaryIbelieved I

would never publishanythingagainand that I would end my days in aconcentrationcamp; it was thereforea personalconfrontationwith the

expérienceandrealityof death.

Fiction ortestimony?

Blanchotequates

Broch's character with

Broch himself: «Virgile, c'est Broch» (Livre 153). Both Blanchot

and Broch write poorly disguised autobiographies; the différence

is in their politics. Broch was a committed anti-fascist, and his

présentation of Augustus supports thèse commitments.39 The

politicai question in the Aeneid is whether Aeneas will show

demency to Turnus. He does not, and this failure has been read

as a critique of the Augustan âge.40 Broch's Virgil eventuallyshows demency to his own work. Art will in the end overcome

its own limitations. Blanchot, however, shifts the question away

from demency - a décision - to random circumstances. This shiftmore than anything else marks Blanchot as modem and in it he

kills off Virgil. Is he dead? No more than Blanchot.

New YorkUniversity

37. P. M. Lützeler, HermannBroch:A Biography,trans. Janice Furness, London

1987,pp. 155-174.

38. Lützeler (above, . 37),p. 157.

39. Virgil was used during this period to support both tascist and anti-lascist posi-

tions, Cox (above, n. 17),pp. 327-328.Steiner (above, n. 8), p. 10 sums up twentieth-

century assumptionsabout

Virgil,whether

pro-or anti-fascist: «Above all,

Virgilis

European, or so we take him to be». In the twenty-first Century,Virgil might turn

out to be American.

40. M. C. J. Putnam, ThePoetryofthe Aeneid,Cambridge ma 1965,pp. 192-194;W.

R.Johnson, DarknessVisible:A Study ofVergil'sAeneid,Berkeley 1976,eh. 4.

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LOWRIE Blanchot and the Death of Vergil