The Meeting Suspended: the Difference and the Immemorial Presence

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between the immemorial and the difference, in the light of Maurice Blanchot and Jean-Luc Nancy, in terms of a sheer deconstruction of the presence. For this purpose, these pages examine how both authors approach two Biblical episodes (the supper at Emaus and the scene of the resurrection according to Mathew´s gospel), in order to link these reflections with the second part of Blanchot´s book, The Unavowable Community, thus deepening in the relationship between the unfathomability of the “real and sheer presence” and the infinite remittance of an encounter that, as will be seen in the case of Blanchot, is irreducible to the farewell. Throughout this analysis the goal will be to demonstrate how the “real presence”, that which cannot thoroughly be neither “there” nor “now”, becomes immemorial, since it is not susceptible of oblivion or remembrance, and yet, it does not abandon us. This compromises not only the positive and secure effectiveness of what is shown (that which presents itself in order to depart), but also the destination of an encounter compelled to dissolution and, consequently, to prolongation and iteration.