Von der Unmöglichkeit des Verstehens und der Notwendigkeit der Verständigung: Philosophie, Politik, Literatur
On the Impossibility of Understanding and the Necessity of Communication: Philosophy, Politics, Literature

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the political relevance of the discourse on alterity. Its starting point is the insight that Otherness is not an essence, but an expression of a relationship. The paper presents three prevalent ways of dealing with alterity – rejection and suppression of the Other, its absolutization, and appreciative, responsive interaction –, and illustrates them using literary examples. In so doing, the paper draws on authors such as Lévinas, Waldenfels, and Glissant. Furthermore, the paper explores possibilities of literary alterity and its didactics, referring to those texts in which the idea of the Other also includes non-human life.

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