Did you discover yet the new article in TxxTlab – and did you enjoy close-reading some lines from Totality and Infinity? Still, maybe you have been wondering whether Levinas, with his levinassian grammar and vocabulary, is writing in a new, self-developed language. Starting to read a text almost in the very middle of a book, and trying to decipher what is showing up there – it can be a confusing experience, like stepping straight into a room filled with strangers speaking in a foreign tongue, or even in more than one. Or like entering the house of an acquaintance you have met previously only superficially.
If so, one could even start fantasizing about a Levinassian -or even Levinassic- as a new era in philosophy. But before that, we must take into account when this translation by Alphonso Lingis was published: in 1969, 45 years ago, only eight years after the French original was issued. Which will bring us back to the more general questions regarding a presumed cultural after-World-War-II climate, questions that are under consideration here in the French section. Analysing differences between theatre-makers and Levinas as a philosopher will require some careful thinking about a possible interplay between an actor – in a theatrical and/or philosophical sense – and the socio-cultural setting in which he operates.
So if you can read some French: watch out for the up-coming next article in the Bibliothèque!