Emmanuel Levinas Web Page

Circle format: open seminar. Ten presenters will read and discuss from an inner circle. Others will listen from an outer circle. Conversations will begin in the inner circle followed by open discussion. The schedule, abstracts and complete will be available o this site for people to prepare discussion points for each paper, for lively conversations.

“A Century with Levinas: Levinas – Blanchot, Thinking the Difference”

An international conference in the framework of the celebrations of Emmanuel Levinas Centennial (2006) and in anticipation of Maurice Blanchot Centennial (2007).

The conference "A Century with Levinas; Levinas , Blanchot --Thinking the Difference" will take place in Paris at the Unesco Palace in november 2006. Attached below is a short announcement.

November 13-16, 2006
International Conference – Palais de l'UNESCO, Paris, France

Organizing Committee: Eric Hoppenot (Paris), Arthur Cools (Antwerpen), Jean-Francois Patricola (Metz), David Uhrig (Paris)

In Partnerships with: UNESCO and World Philosophy Day, the Levinas Ethical Legacy Foundation (LELF, New York) and Association pour la Celebration du Centenaire d'Emmanuel Levinas (ACCEL, Paris)*

Supported by: Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Région Ile de France, Haut Comité des Célébrations Nationales, Fondation Ostad Elahi. Editions Flammarion.

Under the high patronage of the International Organization of Francophony and the auspices of the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale and the City of Paris

More information:
http://www.levinas100.org
http:// www.mauriceblanchot.net

**Important: pre-registration (required) by sending an e-mail with name and postal address to: info@levinas100.org*

The Levinas Society of North America

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have witnessed an extraordinary rise in the production of scholarship centered on the works of Lithuanian-born Jewish philosopher and Talmudic commentator Emmanuel Levinas. Specifically in North America, the past decade has witnessed a prolific interest in the work of Levinas, generating a

Levinas Center at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, a Levinas Studies Annual from Duquesne University Press, a Levinas Research Se! minar, and numerous academic and graduate conferences. Despite this increased interest, however, no formal society for Levinasian studies exists for North American scholars.

As new generations of young scholars continue to comment on Levinas’s insights and develop the work of his translators and exegetes, the need for a broad society aimed at coordinating the important work occurring throughout North America has become quite evident. As such, we are pleased to announce the formation of The North American Levinas Society to coordinate and enhance critical work and collaboration across the academic disciplines. The goal of this society is to facilitate a broad and dynamic community of persons working toward effecti! ng the ethical in political, feminist, religious, critical, literary, pedagogical and philosophical realms. The new Levinas Society hopes to open the necessary space for continuing collaboration between the generations of ! Levinas thinkers and to draw together those working on seemingly disparate projects into a more robust community.

We invite all scholars, faculty, and graduate students, interested in responding to or developing Levinas’s work, to consider joining the North American Levinas Society. As we continue to contact other scholars across North America to offer similar invitations, we hope to develop a directory of society members, an archive of relevant conferences and calls for papers, an online database of Levinas resources and bibliographies, and other important web-based components that will contribute to the development of Levinasian scholarship.

The most exciting activity related to the formation of the society is the organization of an inaugural meeting and conference to be held at Purdue University May 13-15, 2006. In the v! ery broadest sense, the theme and title for this inaugural conference will be “Levinas and the Political.” For more information, please see the society webpage—the details of which are posted below.

The society is, of course, only in its formative stage, so please bear with us as we undoubtedly experience growing pains and work toward more efficient organization and structure. An initial webpage has been constructed, which we hope will serve as the hub of society activity. Though the society will initially be based out of Purdue University, within a couple of years we plan for the society to shift centers of administration so that other young scholars and faculty members across North America may continue to shape society concerns in new ways! and toward innovative orientations.

The domain name and web hosting has already been purchased for the North American Levinas Society, and the permanent URL will be http://www.levinas-society.org; however, as the server extensions are being activated, and as we test the site’s formal properties, the temporary URL is http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~sjneely/levinas.htm. On the society webpage, you will find the society announcement, a call for papers, membership form, resources page, and brief meeting/conference information;! other important components are still under development.

We invite anyone and everyone interested to join the society and to contribute resources, research, articles, and more. If you are interested, simply submit a membership form from the society webpage. As more scholars get involved, the society should offer a dynamic and remarkable resource for communication and research.

For now, there are no membership dues, but as we develop, dues will be an integral resource for funding a society bulletin, conferences, and research.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas please email Sol Neely or Michael R. Michau at secretary@levinas-society.org. We look forward to hearing from you, and please feel free to distribute this announcement widely.

Sincerely,

Sol Neely and Michael R. Michau

The Conference , to take place at Bar Ilan University in December 2006, is intended to be the concluding academic event of a “year long” observance of the centennial of Emmanuel Lévinas birth. That timely context will attract noted scholars of Lévinas’ thought, religious and philosophic. The timing coincides with the anniversary of L évinas death (his yahrzeit ) as well.

A large number of disciplines have found resources and renewal in Levinas’ thought: psychoanalysis, education, jurisprudence, sociology, and medicine. Both his Jewish writings and his more strictly philosophical works, which give primacy to the ethics of Otherness, have long been a central topic of inquiry and debate in the ‘academy’. The proposed Bar Ilan University Conference will examine the intellectual and cultural phenomenon of Lévinas’ expanding influence, and it will adumbrate new approaches to his multifaceted work.

The conference on “Lévinas: Multidisciplinary Perspectives” is intended to enrich philosophical research on the thought of Emmanuel Lévinas by bringing to bear the tools and theories of other disciplines, and by placing his thought in a multidisciplinary context. Furthermore, the Conference will include presentations by specialists in fields outside philosophy, notably those who have brought to light Lévinas’ influence beyond ethics and phenomenology. The Bar Ilan University Conference thus examines the prism of influences of this unique philosopher, whose work has touched cultural, political, and social thought in ways both direct and indirect.

This conference will direct a reflective look at the importance of Lévinas’ ethical teachings in modern Western society, in the Jewish context, and in Western thought of several stripes—philosophical, psychological, and social. In this way, the will provide the first report of its kind on the broad significance of Lévinas's thought.

In association with l'Association pour la Célébration du Centenaire d'Emmanuel Lévinas (ACCEL, Paris), the Lévinas Ethical Foundation (LELF, USA) and RCJ (Paris)

Description: (French version follows)

There are good reasons for linking the name of Maurice Blanchot with that of Emmanuel Lévinas (2006 and 2007 will mark the centenaries of Lévinas and Blanchot respectively). There is the enduring bond of friendship between two authors, exemplified by their student years in Strasbourg, the help Blanchot gave to Lévinas's family during the Occupation, the witness he bore in favor of Judaism, the common effort of each man to think and say what is unspeakable about the Shoah. Many were the agreements, much was shared between them. Blanchot provided the following commentary on the meaning and the mystery of their encounter: 'Something deep down drew us towards each other'. Yet it was a friendship paradoxically without encounter (or so little, when all is said and done), which traversed the twentieth century and lasted their entire lifetimes. This friendship figures as a silent exchange throughout their writings: on numerous occasions they comment on each other, refer, pay homage and even devote a number of texts to each other. Blanchot's writing and that of Lévinas thus developed and deepened in a certain proximity. From the discovery of the il y a to their distant exchanges on the status of the work of art, by way of a dialogue on the subjects of ethics, Judaism and the Bible, which Blanchot cites in his last writings. It is the rejection of the primacy of ontology that brings the two authors close. And no doubt for this reason, the names of Lévinas and Blanchot have become reference points in the discourse of a certain postmodernity. This association has occasionally given rise to some misunderstanding, particularly with regard to the notion of 'ethics' in the Anglo-Saxon world, and this has sometimes led to a blurring of the differences between the two thinkers.

Yet these relations of friendship and this proximity have not prevented several authors from pointing to a deep divide separating the two thinkers. Françoise Collin notes as early as 1971: 'we are always dealing with two registers of writing and thought which it is difficult to compare'. More recently, Jacques Derrida, who 'avowedly placed his work under the triple aegis of Heidegger, Blanchot and Lévinas', acknowledges that in the case of the latter two we encounter 'two untranslatable idioms': 'Whatever Lévinas and Blanchot said or allowed to become apparent concerning their agreement, their alliance, an abyss divides them which could, were we to wish to undertake the exercise, give rise to irreconcilable differences, and sometimes to head-on, explosive confrontations'. Other fault-lines may also appear, though these never suspended their encounter.

It would thus appear that the relations between Blanchot and Lévinas cannot simply be reduced to an alliance between partners who were reacting against the primacy of ontology in Western thought, and whose reference to the 'neuter' crystallizes the difference in their critical attitudes in the face of Heidegger's ontology. Nevertheless, how are we to articulate the differences which separate the two friends, and how are we to think their friendship (and the community which is inherent in it) on the basis of these differences? It is to these two questions, among others, that the colloquium will be devoted.

At the heart of this enquiry, there is first of all a divergence of understanding concerning language. For Lévinas, language is defined essentially as discourse - as speech directed at the other (autrui). For Blanchot on the other hand, the essence of language can only be approached through writing. Linked to this divergence is a different comprehension of subjectivity: for Blanchot, the advent of language is an invitation to an experience which transcends the instance of utterance; Lévinas on the contrary describes the event of language as a promotion of subjectivity, which is called on to reply 'I', 'here I am', in other words, to bear witness. In order to make explicit this difference, it is the key notions of image, understanding, self, existence, other, ethics and God which must be articulated differently.

And yet, in spite of these differences, the authors entered into a dialogue in which the relation between speech and writing is reflected, and in which it is the question of subjectivity itself which is at stake. From this point of view, an examination of their dialogue is an invitation to think the conditions of possibility (in the two-fold Kantian sense of 'transcendental' and 'critical') of community and of friendship.

Proposals (to include a title and an abstract of about fifteen lines) should be accompanied by a brief biographical statement (contact address, institution, work published or in progress, publications where relevant) and sent to one of the following addresses:

Only proposals concerning the work of both thinkers will be considered. Those whose proposals have been accepted will be informed during April 2005.

En association avec l'Association pour la Célébration du Centenaire d'Emmanuel Levinas (ACCEL, Paris), Levinas Ethical Legacy Foundation (LELF, USA) et RCJ (Paris).

Argumentaire:

Il y a de bonnes raisons pour associer au nom d'Emmanuel Lévinas celui de Maurice Blanchot (les années 2006 et 2007 marqueront respectivement le centenaire de Lévinas et celui de Blanchot). L'amitié indéfectible qui s'est nouée entre les deux auteurs et dont on peut rappeler quelques signes : leurs années d'études à Strasbourg, l'aide de Blanchot à la famille de Lévinas sous l'Occupation, son témoignage en faveur du judaïsme, leur effort commun pour penser et dire l'indicible de la Shoah, nombreux furent les accords, les partages. Blanchot commentait ainsi le sens et le mystère de leur rencontre : " Quelque chose de profond nous portait l'un vers l'autre. " Une amitié paradoxalement sans rencontre (ou si peu finalement) qui a traversé le XXè siècle et a duré toute leur vie. Cette amitié, figure comme une interlocution silencieuse à travers leurs écrits : à de multiples reprises, ils se réfèrent l'un à l'autre, se commentent, se rendent hommage et se sont mêmes consacré plusieurs textes. Aussi l'écriture de Blanchot et celle de Lévinas se sont développées et se sont approfondies dans une certaine proximité. De la découverte de l'il y a, aux échanges lointains sur le statut de l'œuvre d'art, en passant par le dialogue sur l'éthique, le judaïsme et la Bible citée par Blanchot dans ses écrits les plus tardifs. C'est par le rejet du primat de l'ontologie que les deux auteurs se rapprochent. C'est sans doute pour cette raison que les noms de Lévinas et de Blanchot sont devenus des références dans le discours d'une certaine postmodernité. Association qui a pu engendrer aussi un certain malentendu notamment autour de la notion de " ethics " dans le monde anglo-saxon, qui a conduit parfois à effacer les différences entre les deux penseurs.

Et pourtant, ces rapports d'amitié et cette proximité n'empêchent pas que plusieurs auteurs ont signalé un profond écart entre les deux penseurs. Françoise Collin l'a constaté dès 1971 : " il s'agit toujours de deux registres d'écriture et de pensée qui supportent mal la comparaison ". Plus récemment, Jacques Derrida, qui " [d]e son propre aveu a placé son œuvre sous le triple signe de Heidegger, de Blanchot et de Lévinas ", reconnaît qu'il s'agit de " deux idiomes intraduisibles " : " Quoi que Lévinas et Blanchot aient dit ou laissé paraître de leur accord, de leur alliance, un abîme les sépare qui pourrait, si on voulait se livrer à cet exercice, donner lieu à d'irréconciliables différends, parfois à des oppositions frontales et explosives ". D'autres fractures peuvent apparaître mais qui jamais n'interrompirent la rencontre.

Il semble bien que le rapport entre Blanchot et Lévinas ne se laisse pas simplement réduire à une alliance de partenaires qui réagissent contre le primat de l'ontologie dans la pensée occidentale et dont la référence au " neutre " cristallise la différence d'attitude critique face à l'ontologie heideggerienne. Néanmoins comment articuler les différences qui séparent les deux amis et comment penser leur amitié (et la communauté qui lui est inhérente) à partir de ces différences ? C'est, entre autres, à ces deux questions que le colloque voudra se consacrer.

Au cœur de ce questionnement, il y a tout d'abord une entente hétérogène du langage. Pour Lévinas, le langage se définit de façon essentielle comme discours - comme parole adressée à autrui. Pour Blanchot, en revanche, l'essence du langage ne peut être approchée que dans l'écriture. A cet écart, une appréhension différente de la subjectivité est liée : pour Blanchot, l'approche du langage invite à une expérience qui dépasse l'instance de l'énonciation, Lévinas, au contraire, décrit l'événement du langage comme une promotion de la subjectivité ayant à répondre " je ", " me voici ", c'est-à-dire, à témoigner. Pour expliciter cette différence, ce sont les notions-clés d'événement, d'image, d'entente, de moi, d'existence, d'autrui, d'éthique, de Dieu qu'il faut articuler différemment.

Et pourtant, malgré ces différences, les auteurs ont engagé un entretien où se réfléchit le rapport de la parole à l'écriture et où est en cause la question même de la subjectivité. Dans cette optique, l'examen de cet entretien invite à penser la condition de possibilité (dans le double sens kantien de " transcendantal " et " critique ") de la communauté et de l'amitié.

Les intervenants intéressées doivent se signaler au plus tard le 15 mars 2005.

Les propositions (titre et résumé d'une quinzaine de lignes) seront accompagnées d'une brève biographie (coordonnées personnelles, université, recherche effectuée ou en cours, publications éventuelles…), elles devront parvenir à l'une des adresses suivantes :

Seules seront étudiées, les communications envisageant les œuvres des deux penseurs.

The Levinas Center at UNCC Announcement from Professor Richard A. Cohen

I am in the process of establishing a Levinas Center located at the Atkins Library (currently undergoing a 3 year, $23,000,000 expansion) of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). The Levinas Center is intended as an international research facility whose object is to facilitate scholarly research into the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). Levinas'ss publications, writings about Levinas (books, dissertations, articles), and relevant audio and video tapes, will be located at one site, catalogued, and made available to scholars and interested individuals. E-mail, fax, and a web site will make this catalogue and information available to the worldwide scholarly community.

The Center would also serve to disseminate information regarding future papers and conferences on Levinas. In addition, the Levinas family heirs (the daughter, Simone Hansel and the son, Michael Levinas) have been contacted and a request has been made to receive copies of all unpublished manuscripts, papers, lecture notes, and letters of the late Professor Emmanuel Levinas.
Request: If you have relevant documents - books, dissertations, articles, lecture notes, videos, cassette tapes, correspondence and would like to make a donation to the Levinas Center, please e-mail: richacohen@aol.com or write to: Levinas Center, c/o Richard A. Cohen, UNCC - Religious Studies, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001. I can also be reached via my web site at the following address: www.geocities.com/richacohen/levinascenter



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