A philosophical analysis of the works of Franz Kafka, Maurice Blanchot and Samuel Beckett laying stress on the aesthetic notion of the sublime, especially as defined by philosopher Immanuel Kant, and arguing that these authors incorporate sublimity into their writing while also undermining the grandeur this traditionally implies.

Jeff Fort is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of The Imperative to Write (2014) and translator of more than a dozen books, by Jean Genet, Jacques Derrida, Maurice Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy, and others.