Abstract
Mikhail Bakhtin inaugurates a kind of ethics of responsibility in his first book Toward a Philosophy of the Act. It is informed by Husserl’s phenomenological propositions, and it engages a hidden dialogue with Levinas’ theory. It may be argued that Bakhtin and Levinas combined to present a comprehensive articulation of the ethics of the Other. Bakhtin rewrites the ethics of the Other and constructs an aesthetics marked by ethical issues through such approaches as transforming the ethical relation of “I-Other” into the aesthetic relation of “author-hero.” Such ethical aesthetics is intertextually connected to Levinas’ theory about literature and art, which further promotes the communication between Bakhtin’s and Levinas’ literary aesthetics. By referring to the communication between their theories about ethics and the aestheticization of ethics, readers become aware of the dual engagement of ethicality and aestheticality in literary and artistic works. It helps people understand comprehensively the ethics and aesthetics in literary and artistic works. Moreover, it enables the ethical and aesthetic value to fulfil their social functions so that people can reflect upon the two trends in humans’ social life.
First Page
185
Last Page
193
Recommended Citation
Bi, Xiao. 2021. "A Comparison between Bakhtin’s and Levinas’ Ethics of the Other and Its Aesthetic Significance." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (6): pp.185-193. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss6/3
