The Ethics of Community Nancy, Derrida, Morrison, and Menendez [Paperback]

The Ethics of Communityinitiates a conversation between continental philosophy and cultural/literary studies that is long overdue. Illustrating that there is a fundamental ethics in deconstructionist approaches to community that can be provocatively traced in the context of cultural considerations central to African-American and U.S. Latino literature, this is a book about bridging gaps. Luszczynska nimbly traverses the complex terrain of preeminent French philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy, offering a valuable introduction to the ethical components of their philosophical projects. Toni Morrison'sBelovedand Ana Menendez'sIn Cuba I Was a German Shepherdserve as case studies through which Nancian community and Derridean bearing witness are elaborated. As Luszczynska demonstrates, Morrison's foregrounding of the distinct cultural sensibilities of her black and white characters and Menendez's preoccupation with geographical displacement and exile, themselves activate a deconstructive ethics. In this groundbreaking study, distinct cultural understandings and contexts provide a novel way of thinking through intricacies of Nancy and Derrida's thought while revealing the potential of the novel to re-imagine ways of being in the concrete world.

Chapter 1: Nancy and Derrida: On Ethics and the Same (Infinitely Different) Constitutive Events of Being / Chapter 2: The Opposite of the Concentration Camp: Nancy's Community / Chapter 3: Morrison's Beloved, Nancian Community, Derridean Witnessing / Chapter 4: Radical Irrecuperability: Experiencing Being in Language / Bibliography / Index

Ana M. Luszczynska is Assistant Professor of English, Florida International University, Miami, USA.