ABSTRACT
This introduction presents the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book follows Hegel through an illustrious history towards its problematic conclusion. It provides a reading of the Sonnet as an attempt to achieve the pure poetics of interiority. As a perfectly reflexive work (purely narcissistic), the Sonnet must dispatch all reference to anything outside itself. The book is principally concerned with Maurice Blanchot's reading of Igitur. It argues that Blanchot's literary criticism is structured around an opposition. The book examines the notion of the 'livre' in some of Derrida's earlier publications before going on to look at his readings of Mallarme given in La Dissemination. It is with the end of art in Hegel's Aesthetics that Mallarme coordinates his project and it is towards a beyond of the Hegelian system, towards a time that has outlived ('survit') beauty, that Mallarme's work draws Blanchot and Derrida.
