| By its structure and by the impressive quantity of literary presuppositions that it questions, Le Livre des questions sets itself in the margins of any classical understanding of literature. For Jabes, citation holds a central place in the book: it is one of the main elements which subverts the literary text. It is not an addition, an artifice or a purely stylistic process through which the text is reinforced and given credibility: it is the essence of writing, and the understanding of its importance made it possible for the writer to continue writing in spite of what he perceived as the failure of western culture after Auschwitz. This thesis examines citation in Le Livre des questions and attempts to define Jabes' conception of the book and of writing. Le Livre des Questions encourages us to redefine citation as movement, otherness and memory. |
