Persecution and Morality

dossier on the psychotic overuse of âEURoeethicsâEUR in contemporary American theories that depend on Lévinas and FreudâEUR(TM)s pooled fates for securing faux assumptions and condemnatory stances, uncritically maintained. Importantly, the study tracks how love turns to hate, calling on readers vi to identify their particular otherâEUR"object of obsession and shadow partâEUR"if only to observe when one becomes vulnerable, in a genuinely Levinasian sense, to the foreclosure of ethical relation. âEUR"Avital Ronell, Ph.D., University Professor of the Humanities at New York University, New York, USA
 
In this intriguing book, Valerie Giovanini pairs Sigmund Freud and Emmanuel Levinas, strange bedfellows, perhaps uncanny ones, both haunted by violence. She challenges us to compare and contrast their attitudes toward ethics and vulnerability, as well their life stories. She makes us ask if, or how,psychoanalysis and radical ethics can ft together in the face of personal trauma. Best of all, she leaves us with more questions about the passivity inherent in persecution. An important contribution. âEUR"Donna M. Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D., NYU Postdoctoral Program and the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York, USA
 
Dr. Giovanini posits her work as a âEURoeretellingâEUR of the works and lives of Freud and Lévinas which foregrounds her sensitivity to the intimate relationship between reading, testimony, and the possibility of actionality, thus allowing her to both perform readings of their lives and their works  âEUR" in all of their multiplicities, complexities, incongruities âEUR" whilst, at the very same time, be refexive about the fact that her text might well be running those very same risks. Focusing on persecution as an entry point into her exploration is both philosophically intriguing and strategicallyvery sound: there really arenâEUR(TM)t many texts out there which address this urgent issue. Philosophically speaking, the way in which she unveils the persecutory gestures in the works of those who have been persecuted in their lives (whilst not exonerating herself from the possibility of doing so) is intriguing. IâEUR(TM)ll go so far as to say that this work might well be responsible for initiating a new generation of refections that make our philosophical âEUR" and ethical âEUR" certitudes tremble. I can well imagine Dr. GiovaniniâEUR(TM)s book being on the reading lists in English, gender studies, philosophy, art, and media studies departments, as well as quite possibly the general public. I certainly will be looking forward to the possibility of including her text in a seminar I run, entitled Writing Women. Her writing style is clear, welcoming, and very engaging. âEUR"Jeremy Fernando, Ph.D., Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School, Switzerland