ABSTRACT

The 'death of man', the 'end of history' and even philosophy are strong and troubling currents running through contemporary debates. Yet since Nietzsche's heralding of the 'death of god', philosophy has been unable to explain the question of finitude.
Very Little...Almost Nothing goes to the heart of this problem through an exploration of Blanchot's theory of literature, Stanley Cavell's interpretations of romanticism and the importance of death in the work of Samuel Beckett. Simon Critchley links these themes to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to present a powerful new picture of how we must approach the importance of death in philosophy.
A compelling reading of the convergence of literature and philosophy, Very Little...Almost Nothing opens up new ways of understanding finitude, modernity and the nature of the imagination.

chapter |30 pages

Preamble Travels in Nihilon

chapter |54 pages

(a) Reading Blanchot

chapter |56 pages

Lecture 2 Unworking romanticism

chapter |40 pages

Lecture 3: Know happiness—on Beckett

chapter |25 pages

Notes 206

chapter |2 pages

Acknowledgements