Modes of Relation in the Work of Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the different modes of relation that are exhibited in the work of Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995). Starting with the thesis that there is no single definition of relation as such in Levinas's thought, the article focuses, first, on his early work, On Escape (1935), Time and the Other (1947), Existence and Existents (1947) and the captivity notebooks (Carnets de captivité), and elaborates the relation between the I and the Other against the background of his notions of fecundity and eros. The notion of subjectivity is consequently presented in its relationship to the face and the infinite, highlighting an ethical mode of relation between the subject and the Other. Finally, Levinas's Talmudic readings are taken to motivate the messianic mode of relation – opening up, in the conclusion, a new approach to the Other from the perspective of a messianic subjectivity.