Levinasian Hermeneutics: Breaking Analogy

In the history of aesthetics going back to Aristotle, metaphor has held a central place. Levinas, however, challenges this privileging of metaphor with its attempt at unity, something he sees as continuous with metaphysical traditions that Levinas contests. This privileging of metaphor persists in contemporary philosophy and literary theory, as seen, for example, in the influential work of Ricoeur. In Ricoeur`s The Rule of Metaphor, metaphor indeed rules. While concerned to address the post-metaphysical critique of ontology, Ricoeur`s theory of metaphor nevertheless resumes ontological unities that metaphor (as Derrida argues) enacts. Levinas counters this tradition of resemblance and analogy with what he calls enigma, as interrupting the unities of metaphor in ways that Levinas`s discourse of the Other likewise interrupts, guarding against the reduction and erasure of difference. Enigma thus runs through both Levinasian ethics and aesthetics, connecting to Levinasian language theory of Saying/Said/Unsaying as model for discourse in both philosophy and art. In this model, Levinas interestingly recalls differences that go back to Aquinas`s critique of Maimonides as evading or constraining analogy in discourses of religion.