Emmanuel Levinas : The Genealogy Of Ethics

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MLR, 102.4, 2007 II35 stitutive role of interpretation in the lifeof texts and to their recurrentlydeterminate indeterminacy. Does thisambitious project work Not entirely: thegenealogy of the 'demonic' line isonly half plausible (and the readings ofRossetti and Poe failed topersuade me); the account of the material substratum of textsdoes not seem tome toexplain adequately the semantic role of the material medium and works with a notion ofhistory thatdoes not, except rhetorically, connect with a largerworld ofmeaning and action. It is an impressive piece ofwork, though: historically informed, digitally canny, and willing tocommit to theoretical generalization in away that lesser critics rarelyattempt. And itstill believes, as hardly anyone else now does, that a textual poetics ispossible. UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE JOHN FROW Vigilant Memory: Emmanuel Levinas, theHolocaust, and theUnjust Death. By R. CLIFTON SPARGO. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2006. xvi + 3 I I PP. $6o; 40. ISBN 978-0-80I8-83 I I-8. Trauma, memory, responsibility, otherness, and ethics are somuch part of our intel lectual diet thatwe might mislead ourselves into thinkingwe actually know what they mean. Moreover, the influence of Emmanuel Levinas on our understanding of these terms,particularly in thecontext ofwhat some see as theethical turnofpoststructural ism in the I980s, has been largely taken forgranted. However, thebroad acceptance of what are taken to be Levinasian positions may have impeded a real engagement with his thought.His difficultand intransigentphilosophy has more often been reduced to a simplifying, comfortable injunction to respect the other, or theOther, than actually read in all itsharsh complexity. Vigilant Memory ispart of an attempt to redress the situation by returning to thedetail ofLevinas's texts, ina bold, sustained, and original examination ofhow hemight help us understand the role ofmemory and thenature of responsibility in thepost-Holocaust world. Without ducking some difficult issues and with a truly impressive intellectual range, thebook sets out toexplore Levinas's ethics from an explicitly political standpoint. It argues against liberalizing misapplications of Levinas's ethics which see in it only a tame and uncontroversial celebration of otherness and cultural difference.R. Clifton Spargo meticulously confronts themost challenging aspects of Levinas's thought, such as the contention that the victim is responsible for theperpetrator's wrongdoing. The careful attention to thenuance of Levinas's argument does notmean, though, thathe isdeemed tohave all theanswers. Levinas's admirers have generally been slow toconfront the acute criticisms ofAlain Badiou, according towhich Levinas's conception of the absolutely Other depends on a religiousmystification. Rather than dismissing or ignoringBadiou's misgivings, Spargo takes them seriously, and refutes them through patient readings of the status ofmemory, conscience, victims, strangers, and neighbours inLevinas's work. Levinas himself was not always helpful to thosewho want topoliticize his thought.His reluc tance in a radio discussion held in i982 to condemn Israeli complicity with themas sacres at Sabra and Shatila inoccupied Lebanon has been takenby some to show that his ethics are flawedor politically irrelevant.Spargo argues rather thaton thisoccasion Levinas's language is inadequate tohis own ethical exigency. Levinas was sometimes, it issuggested, a poor reader of his own work, which ispotentially more political than hemight have realized. So there isno slavish discipleship on display here. The politi cized Levinas may not be a creature thephilosopher himselfmight have recognized, but Spargo's perspective is still resolutely Levinasian. IfLevinas iscriticized, it is for not grasping or developing the full resonance of his own thought.All this isachieved with a strong sense of theoretical and historical context. The style of thebook is cer 1136 Reviews tainly demanding, though it is frequently lightened by itswide-ranging cultural re ferences.The account of JudeLaw's impersonation ofTony Blair on Saturday Night Live in2004, forexample, manages both tobe entertaining and to make a barbed poli tical point. In general, this is a dense, thoughtful, and committed book which shows that a rigorous study can also constitute an independent reflection in itsown right. ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON COLIN DAVIS Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy. By PARKHONAN. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. xVi+421 pp. i6.22. ISBN 978-0-I9-8I8695-3. The central tension ofChristopher Marlowe's life is captured byRobert Lowell in a sonnet from History (London: Faber & Faber, I973): I died sweating, stabbed... 59ce067264

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