The Bachelor thesis focuses on analysing the relationship between the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and literature. By studying his philosophy and societal context, the basis for understanding Levinas’s interpretation of art and, more specifically, literature is established. Analysing his earlier and later works, the thesis portrays Levinas’s differing views on literature and seeks to understand them through the prism of his ethical philosophy of the “other”. The latter remains Levinas’s unwavering constant throughout his texts. It appears that Levinas’s attitude towards literature is quite ambivalent. On the one hand, he adopts an extremely critical stance, while, on the other hand, he embraces and depicts literature as unique for its potential to establish an »experience« of the absolute otherness of another person through its usage of images and poetical language.
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