2 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel
In spite of their being very different authors in terms of style, I
contend that there are a number of thematic and occasionally formal
similarities that can be observed between their work. Among these,
empathy and sympathy are particularly important common themes
of the texts. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the manner in
which these themes are integrated into the very stylistic repertoires
of the texts and are deployed in ways that add depth and potency to
the cosmopolitan ideas they evoke. More specifically, I propose that
each writer has employed literary devices that confound straightfor-
ward empathic engagement on the part of the reader toward the pro-
tagonists featured in their works to promote a cosmopolitan way of
looking at the world that is at once self-reflexive, historically atten-
tive, and materially conscious. I argue that by problematizing our
empathy toward the characters in the works, the novelists encourage
us to identify and overcome some of the different challenges to cos-
mopolitan conciliation. The empathic obstacles the writers use in
this respect include psychological trauma, mental illness, and the
inherent limitations of language and texts as a means of expressing
the complexity of contemporary life.
When I turn to discussing some of the ethical implications
involved in these procedures, I rely partly on the work of Emmanuel
Levinas, who in Totality and Infinity advocates an ethics based upon
an introspective and critical mode of viewing the self in relation
to the Other.^1 For those readers unacquainted with Levinas, please
rest assured that your lack of familiarity will not present a major
obstacle to your understanding of the book as a whole. Levinas’s
work does indeed provide some substantial theoretical support for
the ethical arguments I put forward in the book, and it is used to
varying degrees throughout all three chapters. However, it should be
kept in mind that it is only one of the theoretical substructures upon
which my ethical arguments have been built and does not exclusively
define the ethical or philosophical vision of this book. Nonetheless,
for purposes of reference there follows a very brief introduction to
Levinas’s ethics (or rather, those aspects of his ethical work that are
used in this study).
For Levinas, the Other is a psychological abstraction that the
individual creates to distinguish itself from the “absolute exteriority