This is the first full-length study devoted to Roger Laporte, whose lifelong exploration of the stakes of writing has produced a body of work on the borderline of literature and philosophy. Charting the development of Laporte's writing in relation to the work of Heidegger, Levinas, Blanchot and Derrida, this study offers both a comprehensive reading of Laporte's oeuvre and a new perspective on an important strand of recent thinking about literature. In particular, it is claimed here that the imperfect reflexivity of Laporte's 'Ophic' texts effects a singular opening to reading, and that in doing so it illuminates the ethical dimension of literature which has been the subject of much recent discussion.