Other Others: Levinas, Literature, Transcultural Studies
, by Shankman, StevenNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9781438430843 | 1438430841
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 1/2/2011
In literary and cultural studies today, the term ôthe Otherö appears to have largely lost its moorings in the primacy of the intersubjective encounter, focusing rather on the social construction of the Other. For Emmanuel Levinas, in contrast, the Other is precisely that which eludes construction and categorization. In a study that ranges from literature of ancient China, Greece, and Israel to modern Egypt, Italy, West Africa, and America, Steven Shankman tests Levinas's ideas by reading literary works from outside the Judeo-Christian orbit for figurations equivalent to Levinas's notion of the Other. He also places ethics at the center of intercultural-or, in his words, ôtransculturalö-comparative literature. In contemporary literary and cultural studies, it is often assumed that culture has the last word. However, as Levinas insists-and as Shankman argues throughout this book-it is ethics that is the ôpresupposition of all Culture,ö that is situated ôbefore Culture.ö Book jacket.