The totality of the war and the infinity of the Other

A reading of the relationship between Xié Lián and Bái Wúxiàng under the levinasian optics

Abstract

This essay intends to analyze the relationship between Xiè Lián and Bái Wúxiàng, respectively protagonist and villain from the Chinese novel Tiān Guān Cì Fú (pinyin), or “Heaven Official’s Blessing”, by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, under the perspective of a snippet of the Preface of the text Totality and Infinity, by Emmanuel Levinas. First, it will comment on the reflections of the author about war and morals, written throughout the first paragraphs of the preface of the book, to, then, discourse about some events from the Books 2 and 4 of the novel analyzing it under the levinasian optics. 

Keywords: War, morals, suspension, totality, infinity, Other, Xiè Lián, Bái Wúxiàng.