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Emmanuel Levinas: A Philosophy of Exile
Author(s): Abi Doukhan (Author)
- Publisher: Continuum
- Publication Date: 23 Aug. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 1441195769
- ISBN-13: 9781441195760
Book Description
Our era is profoundly marked by the phenomenon of exile and it is has become increasingly urgent to rethink the concept of exile and our stance towards it. This renewed reflection on the problem of exile brings to the fore a number of questions regarding the traditionally negative connotation of exile. Is there not another way to understand the condition of exile?
Permeated with references to the ‘stranger’, the ‘other’ and ‘exteriority’, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas signifies a positive understanding of exile. This original and compelling book distills from Levinas’s philosophy a wisdom of exile, for the first time shedding a positive light on the condition of exile itself. Abi Doukhan argues that Levinas’s philosophy can be understood as a comprehensive philosophy of exile, from his ethics to his thoughts on society, love, knowledge, spirituality and art, thereby presenting a comprehensive view of the philosophy of Levinas himself as well as a renewed understanding of the wealth and contribution of exile to a given society.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Arguing against the received position that exile carries a negative connotation, Abigail Doukhan offers a re-reading of exile as a positive trope, one that also argues founds Levinas’s philosophical project. Doukhan reads Levinas’s philosophy as a philosophy of exile, one that bridges the gap between exile and ethics and thus offers new interpretive tools for thinking about societies in crisis as a result of the exile inside and outside the community. — Claire Katz, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at Texas A&M University, USA
About the Author
Abi Doukhan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Queens College, CUNY, USA.
