Levinas and medieval literature : the difficult reading of English and rabbinic texts /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Pittsburgh, Pa. : Duquesne University Press, c2009.
Description:x, 374 p. ; 23 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Lévinas, Emmanuel -- Ethics.
Lévinas, Emmanuel.
Ethics in literature.
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism.
Rabbinical literature -- History and criticism.
Literature and morals.
Religion and literature -- History -- To 1500.
English literature -- Middle English.
Ethics.
Ethics in literature.
Literature and morals.
Rabbinical literature.
Religion and literature.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/7712261
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Astell, Ann W.
Jackson, J. A. (Justin A.), 1972-
ISBN:9780820704203 (cloth : alk. paper)
0820704202 (cloth : alk. paper)
9780820704210 (pbk. : alk. paper)
0820704210 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-357) and index.
Summary:"Twelve essays take the unique approach of connecting Christian allegory, talmudic hermeneutics, and Levinasian interpretation, as authors put into dialogue the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas with a variety of English and rabbinic writings from the Middle Ages, thus illuminating what it means to classify medieval texts as profoundly ethical"--Provided by publisher.
Description
Summary:This collection of essays puts into dialogue the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas with a variety of English and rabbinic writings from the Middle Ages, when literature was regarded as ethical discourse, and reading itself, when rightly performed, was seen as a moral act.<br> <br> Levinas and Medieval Literature takes the unique approach of connecting Christian allegory, talmudic hermeneutics, and Levinasian interpretation. Levinas's philosophy illuminates what it means to classify medieval texts as profoundly ethical; and the medieval works, in their aurality, fragmentation, and layered narrative structures, provide a crucial context for understanding Levinas's "difficult reading" and his underappreciated aesthetics.<br> <br> These discussions draw inspiration from Levinas who, as a philosopher and talmudic commentator, continues premodern traditions in a postmodern key. In their view, Levinas's "postmodern" method of reading, his ethical sensibilities, his very language, appear anachronistically medieval. At the same time, they discover that Levinas hyperbolically amplifies the themes with which medieval writings resonate: hospitality, onto(theo)logy, infinity, theodicy, Creation, eros, the maternal, the Face, substitution, and pardon. They find in medieval interpretive practices the very concerns with ethical reading that powerfully engaged Levinas.<br> <br> Encountered dialogically, these mutual themes and concerns of the medievals and Levinas inform and transform our sense of intellectual history.
Physical Description:x, 374 p. ; 23 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-357) and index.
ISBN:9780820704203 (cloth : alk. paper)
0820704202 (cloth : alk. paper)
9780820704210 (pbk. : alk. paper)
0820704210 (pbk. : alk. paper)