Sam B. Girgus - Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption: Time, Ethics, and the Feminine

LEVINAS

AND THE

CINEMA

OF

REDEMPTION

FILM AND CULTURE SERIES John Belton, General Editor

FILM AND CULTURE

A series of Columbia University Press

EDITED BY JOHN BELTON

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Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy

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ED SIKOV

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Black Women as Cultural Readers

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Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style, National Identity, Japanese Film

DARRELL WILLIAM DAVIS

Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectatorship in Classic Horror Cinema

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Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond

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The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music

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The New European Cinema: Redrawing the Map

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George Gallup in Hollywood

SUSAN OHMER

Electric Sounds: Technological Change and the Rise of Corporate Mass Media

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The Impossible David Lynch

TODD MCGOWAN

Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films: Attachment in the Age of Global Visibility

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Hitchcocks Romantic Irony

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Intelligence Work: The Politics of American Documentary

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

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COPYRIGHT 2010 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-51949-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Girgus, Sam B., 1941

Levinas and the cinema of redemption : time, ethics, and the feminine/Sam B. Girgus.

p. cm. (Film and culture)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-14764-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-14765-1 (pbk : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-51949-6 (e-book)

1. Motion picturesMoral and ethical aspects. 2. Motion picturesPhilosophy. 3. Redemption in motion pictures. 4. Lvinas, EmmanuelCriticism and interpretation.

I. Title. II. Series.

PN1995.5.G57 2010

791.43'684dc22

2009045451

A Columbia University Press E-book.

CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at .

References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

DESIGN BY MARTIN N. HINZE

To our grandchildren Arielle Gianni, Zachary Isaac (Ziggy), Mia Victoria, and Maxwell Scot-Smith; their parents, Katya and Jeff and Meighan and Ali; and Jennifer and Scottie

CONTENTS

For the past several years I have been fortunate to pursue a new area of studythe difficult ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinasin the excellent company of outstanding Vanderbilt University students. Many of the ideas in this book grew out of those classroom encounters. I have cherished this learning experience and look forward to more. I am grateful to each and every student for the opportunity to study and learn together. I hope they also have gained from what my colleague Gregg Horowitz has called my journey.

Indeed, as our work progressed, I came to realize that I was neighbors on campus with some of the leading philosophers in this new field for me of phenomenology and ethics. I am therefore especially appreciative for the support I received from David Wood and Kelly Oliver. Also in the Philosophy Department, I wish to thank Lisa Guenther, Katharine Loevy, J. Aaron Simmons, John Lachs, Charles Scott, and Gregg. A grant from Dan Cornfields Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies, among other grants and funds, enabled other outstanding scholars in film, philosophy, and American studies to speak on campus. Their talks, conversation, and presence helped to create a special ambience on campus for students and colleagues with interests in these fields. Their work appears throughout this book. In philosophy these scholars include John Llewelyn, Tina Chanter, Simon Critchley, Ewa Ziarek, and Richard Cohen. In film I especially wish to thank John Belton, Anne Kern, Dudley Andrew, Peter Bailey, David Rodowick, and Rebecca Bell-Metereau. In American studies Thadious M. Davis, a special friend for years, returned to campus for a talk on ethics and race in America. Whether speaking on campus or writing about American studies, American literature, or Jewish studies, Sacvan Bercovitch remains a seminal influence.

Over several decades Emory Elliotts influence, friendship, and support pervaded American literary scholarship and American studies. He deeply touched the lives of an extraordinary number of people in these fields. His support and generosity proved crucial to many of us in all stages of our careers. As Michael Kreyling said about him after one of his visits, Every time Emory comes here, he makes you feel better about yourself and your work. Emorys sudden death has been a devastating and unrecoverable loss to us as individuals and to the disciplines he inspired and led. His many visits to campus were vital events for American studies and American literature at Vanderbilt.