Peace＇s gift when you meet the other is not a polite phrase. This is courtesy or politeness which institutes a priority order： first the far, then the near. In Levinas＇ thought, there is a peace of pure rest, ＂at ...Peace＇s gift when you meet the other is not a polite phrase. This is courtesy or politeness which institutes a priority order： first the far, then the near. In Levinas＇ thought, there is a peace of pure rest, ＂at home＂ and a peace which questions my own identity. A fair peace is a peace where the foreigner goes before me. ＂Close peace is my responsibility for the other man,＂ says Levinas. It is an ＂ethical＂ peace, different from political peace. Peace comes from my own responsibility for the other, until it could die for him. Maybe this welcome will seem crazy, but it is moderated, i.e., involved and estimated in politics. Levinas knows the political moment. But he puts it to its place： to welcome the strangers is an objective fact. Proximity of social link and perspective of far cannot be separated. It＇s a matter of politics and right.展开更多
This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the wri...This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the writers＇ reaction to the dynamics of gazing and the ethics of touch yields surprising results. Many women travellers have no problem to acknowledge the reciprocity of the gaze, accepting, as a matter of course, that the objects of their ethnological interest will gaze at them in return. In comparison, male travellers often exhibit unease at becoming an object of appraisal and observation. Even more interestingly, male travellers often shy away from haptic contact with members of the indigenous population, whereas many （though not all） women are more tolerant of touch and proximity. Regarded as ＂unwomanly＂ by their contemporaries, they carved out for themselves roles which allowed for a more intimate interaction with foreign ethnicities; also, they wrote in different genres--private memoirs instead of official reports. But even in their （semi） fictional writings male authors seem to imagine inter-cultural encounters in different terms from women and tend not let their protagonists enter into close bodily contact with the indigenous population.展开更多
文摘Peace＇s gift when you meet the other is not a polite phrase. This is courtesy or politeness which institutes a priority order： first the far, then the near. In Levinas＇ thought, there is a peace of pure rest, ＂at home＂ and a peace which questions my own identity. A fair peace is a peace where the foreigner goes before me. ＂Close peace is my responsibility for the other man,＂ says Levinas. It is an ＂ethical＂ peace, different from political peace. Peace comes from my own responsibility for the other, until it could die for him. Maybe this welcome will seem crazy, but it is moderated, i.e., involved and estimated in politics. Levinas knows the political moment. But he puts it to its place： to welcome the strangers is an objective fact. Proximity of social link and perspective of far cannot be separated. It＇s a matter of politics and right.
文摘This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the writers＇ reaction to the dynamics of gazing and the ethics of touch yields surprising results. Many women travellers have no problem to acknowledge the reciprocity of the gaze, accepting, as a matter of course, that the objects of their ethnological interest will gaze at them in return. In comparison, male travellers often exhibit unease at becoming an object of appraisal and observation. Even more interestingly, male travellers often shy away from haptic contact with members of the indigenous population, whereas many （though not all） women are more tolerant of touch and proximity. Regarded as ＂unwomanly＂ by their contemporaries, they carved out for themselves roles which allowed for a more intimate interaction with foreign ethnicities; also, they wrote in different genres--private memoirs instead of official reports. But even in their （semi） fictional writings male authors seem to imagine inter-cultural encounters in different terms from women and tend not let their protagonists enter into close bodily contact with the indigenous population.
