Drabinski resolutely places himself in the unacknowledged double bind between the ethical and the political in Levinas's work and, with an impressive and erudite humility, attempts to rethink Levinas for "those of us with a materialist sensibility." -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor in the Humanities Columbia University To think postcolonial critique as a philosophy of difference and an ethical relation to the Other is inconceivable without taking into account the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas and the Postcolonial refuses all theoretical ghettos to bring welcome intellectual rigor, depth, and insight to the critique of global colonialism. -- Nick Nesbitt, Princeton University Drabinski resolutely places himself in the unacknowledged double bind between the ethical and the political in Levinas's work and, with an impressive and erudite humility, attempts to rethink Levinas for "those of us with a materialist sensibility." To think postcolonial critique as a philosophy of difference and an ethical relation to the Other is inconceivable without taking into account the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas and the Postcolonial refuses all theoretical ghettos to bring welcome intellectual rigor, depth, and insight to the critique of global colonialism.

What can we learn from reading Levinas alongside postcolonial theories of difference? With that question in view, Drabinski undertakes readings of Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Edouard Glissant, and Subcommandante Marcos in order to rethink ideas of difference, language, subjectivity, ethics, and politics. Through these philosophical readings, he gives a new perspective on the work of these important postcolonial theorists and helps make Levinas relevant to other disciplines concerned with postcolonialism and ethics.
Les mer
This monograph initiates the conversation between Levinas and postcolonial theory through a zig-zag reading, asking both how postcolonial theory challenges so many Levinasian concepts and how a Levinasian ethics is crucial for the normative dimension of postcolonial thinking.
Les mer
Acknowledgements; Preface; Introduction: Decolonizing Levinasian Ethics; 1. Incarnate Historiography and the Problem of Method; 2. Epistemological Fracture; 3. The Ontology of Fracture; 4. Ethics of Entanglement; 5. Decolonizing Levinasian Politics; Concluding Remarks.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780748641031
Publisert
2011-06-28
Utgiver
Vendor
Edinburgh University Press
Vekt
497 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
224

Forfatter

Biographical note

John E. Drabinski is Visiting Associate Professor at Amherst College.