Disappearance of Literature

In this book Aaron Hillyer considers the implications of Maurice Blanchot's strange formulation: Literature is heading to its essence which is its disappearance. This quest leads Hillyer to stage a dialogue between the works of Blanchot and Giorgio Agamben. Despite being primary points of reference for literary theory no significant critical work has examined their literary writings together. <i>The Disappearance of Literature </i>initiates this new trajectory through readings of Blanchot's The Unavowable Community and Agamben's <i>The Open</i> two short books that harbor their most enigmatic writings. A series of related concepts-study community mysticism and friendship-emerges from this pairing and Hillyer argues forms the basis of a new vein of contemporary literature found in the novels and hybrid fictions of Enrique Vila-Matas Anne Carson and Cesar Aira.