The Other In Emmanuel Levinas’s Criticism Of Poetry

The Other of Emmanuel Levinas’ s ethical philosophy,as a key word in contemporary western literary theory and criticism,becomes the research hotspot of the academic circles at home and abroad in recent years.The related research findings mainly focus on the philosophical source of the Other,the application of the Other in literary field,and the studies of the relationship between the Other and literature.However,as far as the phenomenon of literary criticism widely existing in Levinas’ s philosophy is concerned,the academic circle has not fully studied yet,and meanwhile that the relationship between the Other and the literature can be figured out or not is related with the essential issue whether Levinas’ s the Other contains literary property.Therefore,taking the Other as the study object,this thesis will focus on Levinas’ s analysis of Shakespeare,Maurice Blanchot and Paul Celan,in the context of Levinas’ philosophical monograph Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority and Proper Names to clarify the literary significance of Levinas’ s the Other.This thesis consists of three parts: the introduction,the main body,and the conclusion.The introduction part includes literature review,research questions,research methodology and organization of the thesis.It will demonstrate that the poetry this thesis studies is within the scope of Levinas’ s thinking,which includes tragedy,lyrics,and novels.The main body of this thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter one,aiming to clarify the condition of Levinas’ s presence of the Other,takes the Other in Levinas’ s criticism of Shakespearean tragedies,including Macbeth,King Lear,Hamlet,and Othello,as the object of his research.It is thus pointed out that Levinas claims that Shakespeare’s tragedy demonstrates the tragic nature of the infinite existence.Shakespeare as a poet,uses the escaping of the infinite existence as the subject of tragedy to make himself a savior,and thus makes the tragic nature become a condition for the presence of the Other.Chapter two,aiming to clarify the characteristic of exteriority,takes the Other in Levinas’ s criticism of Maurice Blanchot’s poetic works and literary criticism,involving The Last Man,The Space of Literature and so on,as the object of his research.Levinas points out that Blanchot uses poetry to present the Other in desire as well as the relationship between the Other and I,and Blanchot’s poetry maintains the exteriority of the Other and his rejection of assimilation in his poetic expression.Chapter three,aiming to clarify the revelation of the Other,takes the Other in Levinas’ s criticism of Paul Celan’s poetry as the object of his research,Levinas argued that Celan’s poetry is the place where the Other is present.The Other is revealed through the transcendental character of Celan’s poetry,through the saying of the Other,as well as the responsibility of the Other.On the basis of the main part of the argument,this article concludes that using his criticism of poetry as paradigm of his philosophy of the Other,Levinas makes Shakespeare’s tragedy,Blanchot’s poetry,and Celan’s poetry become the place where the Other reveals himself.Poeticity is used to effectively maintain the Other,so that the Other can be revealed in maintaining the requirements of presence,exteriority,and the primacy for others.Levinas’ philosophy of the Other,which aims at resisting the speculative traditions of the West,has acquired the possibility of reality in poetry.