The Jabesian Resemblance: Exile, Writing, Hospitality

Abstract

The exceptional work of Edmond Jabès benefited from abundant critical readings coming from multiple horizons. Nevertheless, one can observe a clear imbalance in favour of the volumes that constitute Le Livre des questions or, at least, the absence of in-depth studies analysing systematically the notion of “resemblance” and those other notions that, being closely associated with it, make it fully meaningful. This study, by making its way through the maze of concepts and images that Jabès elaborated around a poetic intuition, tries to understand the notion of resemblance, and the uncertainty that naturally accompanies it, through the experience of exile, the quest for thresholds, the practice of writing