ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Je bâtis ma demeure, and especially of those poems that manifest a desire to create a dwelling made of words impervious to the precariousness, the cruel caprice, of history. It explores the thesis that for Edmond Jabès, lyric poetry was no longer a viable medium to contain the new Jewish dimension of exile he experienced at this time. Commentators have not failed to notice that the collected Cairene poetry, beginning with its title, Je bâtis ma demeure, evokes an architectural structure. In his appreciation, Maurice Nadeau notes that if architecture were understood in a metaphorical sense, then there would be a strong relationship between dwelling and language: one builds a place to dwell with one's words. Maurice Blanchot's thoughts on questioning the historical moment, the post-Auschwitz age, specifically, are connected to his April 1962 review of Robert Antelme's account of his incarceration in Gandersheim and Buchenwald, L'Espèce humaine.
