The anarchy of literature

In this contribution to the volume Levinas and Literature, I intend to analyse Levinas's understanding of literature as implied in his approach to the appearance of meaning. I will do so by means of what I call the deformalization of narrative. In the first part, I will explain how the deformalization of time changes the conditions of narration and I will show how this is present in Levinas’s writings. In the second part, I will present Levinas’s concept of illeity as the most radical outcome of the deformalization of narrative and I will discuss its implications for the art of narration, before returning, in the final part, to the opening question concerning the concept of literature in Levinas’s philosophy, which is based, as I will argue, upon an anarchical and insoluble ambivalence.

ISBN:978-3-11-062966-8

Publication year:2021

Keywords:H1 Book chapter

BOF-keylabel:yes

Accessibility:Closed