Cirrus@Austlit

'This paper elucidates Maurice Blanchot’s (1989; 1995a; 1995b) analysis of the role of inspiration when writing literature, and applies it to PhD thesis writing. It utilises a mixed method qualitative approach weaving interviews with PhD students, doctoral research, auto-ethnography and Blanchot’s analysis. Blanchot (1989) has re-crafted Hegel’s story of the modern subject into the story of the writing subject. He contends that in order to achieve the mastery of a finished ‘work’, a writer must firstly make a leap into the unknown. This can result in the experience of loss and anxiety. Such feelings are indeed common to the PhD experience. However in Blanchot’s account, inspiration is tenacious and ubiquitous. If the writer persists with their writing, they will find a way out of their confusion. Blanchot’s analysis provides encouragement to the PhD student to persist, even during the difficult and arid times of thesis writing. Moreover, because inspiration is tenacious, finishing a ‘work’ or thesis will inevitably result in a new form of beginning.' (Publication abstract)