Education as Mêlée: Jean-Luc Nancy's Singular Plural in the (French) Language and Culture Classroom

Abstract

Abstract: In this article, I explore the significance that Jean-Luc Nancy's concept of the mêlée and his broader thinking on the singular plural hold for the teaching of French language and culture. I make the case that the mêlée provides a lens for seeing subjectivity as open-ended and dynamic and argue that it offers a valuable alternative to the dominant Levinasian paradigm of alterity in the educational space. This alternative allows otherness to be respected while avoiding its relegation to the sphere of the entirely unknown and irrelevant, thus paving the way for more enriching encounters in the classroom.