This book offers the first fully documented and historically contextualised account of the origins and implications of the concept of community in the work of Nancy and Blanchot. It analyses in detail the underlying philosophical, political, literary, and religious implications of the often misrepresented debate between Blanchot and Nancy.

1. Community and its Discontents / 2. Shared Legacies / 3. Community, Sacrifice, Writing / 4. Dissenting Opinions / 5. From Myth to Religion to Politics / 6. Serious Controversy / Chronology / Bibliography / Index

Leslie Hill is Emeritus Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick. His many publications include Maurice Blanchot and Fragmentary Writing (Continuum, 2012), Radical Indecision: Barthes, Blanchot, Derrida, and the Future of Criticism (Notre Dame UP, 2010) The Cambridge Companion to Jacques Derrida (CUP, 2007), Bataille, Klossowski, Blanchot: Writing at the Limit (OUP, 2001), Blanchot: Extreme Contemporary (Routledge, 1997) and Beckett's Fiction (CUP, 1990).