Split Impersonality: Reading Blanchot in Godard's Adieu au langage.

This article analyzes Jean-Luc Godard's use of textual citation in his 2014 film Adieu au langage. Privileging the legible qualities of the filmmaker's critical engagement with a range of source materials, it argues that Godard's practice of citation is analogous to the role of quotation in the work of the literary critic or theorist. Building from Paul de Man's identification of an "impersonal" quality in Maurice Blanchot's criticism, this study considers how Godard's own active separation of the author from the work—both in his references to other authors and in his subjective relation to his own artistic creation—gives rise to a transformation of the possibilities of language. The article's two sections comprise the two prongs of Godard's "split impersonality." First, critical impersonality : focusing on the inclusion of three textual quotations in the opening seconds of the film, the article argues that Godard's purpose in assembling these sources is not merely to reassert nor to synthesize their content but, working from them, to construct his own original theoretical claims. Second, turning toward Adieu au langage 's citation of Blanchot's 1962 novel L'attente L'oubli —in light of de Man's analysis of the relationship between Blanchot's critical writings and his novels—the article contends that Godard's particular subjective positioning within his film constitutes a critique of his own artistic impersonality. The study concludes with a return to the title of Godard's film, assessing how the filmmaker's hybrid literary-critical and cinematic production represents an active attempt to redefine language itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]