The endless community of writing

Abstract

The article provides a critical examination of conventional concepts of community, which traditionally relied on shared presence and a sense of completeness, whether tied to a nation, idea, language, land, race, and others. However, contemporary perspectives suggest that defining community in this manner is increasingly untenable, as the notion of completeness has proven illusory. Today’s communities cannot depend on the traditional foundations of presence. Consequently, this article explores potential future directions for understanding community beyond these metaphysical constructs. The discussion delves into philosophical efforts to conceptualize a postmodern, post-metaphysical community. The central focus is on Jean-Luc Nancy’s notion of the ‘inoperative community’ from the early 1980s, as well as Maurice Blanchot and his idea of the ‘unavowable community,’ Georges Bataille with his idea of the ‘negative community, the community of those who have no community,’ and Jacques Derrida, who introduced the concept of ‘community of the question or community of allegoresis.’