Ethics and Literature: Levinas and Literary Criticism

Abstract

The question posed by this text is: can we use Levinasian ethics in the field of literary studies? In order to provide the answer, Levinas’s attitude toward art will need to be analyzed. His work contains numerous scattered remarks about literature and other arts, but the most explicit statement on the relationship between art and ethics can be found in his essay “Reality and Its Shadow”. Since Levinas’s view on art in this essay is predominantly negative, it poses a significant problem for the application of his theory in the field of literary studies. In order to overcome this difficulty, I use Blanchot’s reworking of Levinasian ethics, and open the possibility of a different relation between literature and ethics than the one originally suggested by Levinas.

Ovaj tekst postavlja sledeće pitanje: možemo li koristiti Levinasovu etiku u polju studija književnosti? Prvi korak u odgovoru na pomenuto pitanje biće analiza odnosa Emanulela Levinasa prema umetnosti. Njegovo celokupno delo sadrži mnogobrojne reference na književna i druga umetnička dela, ali najeksplicitnije teze o odnosu između umetnosti i etike nalaze se u njegovom eseju „Realnost i njena senka“. Levinasov pogled na književnost i umetnost je u ovom eseju u potpunosti negativan i zato automatska primena njegove teorije u studijama književnosti predstavlja ozbiljan problem. Kako bi prevazišli ovaj problem i otvorili mogućnost za jedan drugačiji odnos između etike i književnosti ovaj rad će predstaviti reinterpretaciju Levinasove etike od strane Morisa Blanšoa.