JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 29, Number 3, 2009 Page: 517
465-687, [3] p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Matthew Jackson
In the movement ofthe reduction from the Saying to the Said, "the plot
of the saying that is absorbed in the said is not exhausted in this
manifestation" and the Saying imprints its trace ofthe thematization of the
Said (46). In other words, while I cannot put the ethical into words, exactly,
my attempts to say the ethical in the Said of language may carry a trace
of the ethical in the Saying. Levinas describes the tenuous attempt to
expose the otherwise than being as a hint of the truth of the infinite, "an
echo of the otherwise" that can be glimpsed (44). Rhetoric conceived as
the phenomenological reduction ofthe Saying to the Said is thus necessary
so that the signification of the infinite might be glimpsed through the
betrayal of the Saying in the Said (151-52).
This way toward the ethical is both an approach and a faltering of my
responsibility to and for the Other; rhetorically, such a moment can point
to a way of approaching the Said as a necessary but tentative move.
Inasmuch as the Said does not "absorb all the saying" and the Saying "goes
beyond" what can be "fixed" as a designation in the Said, my well-intended
Saying as an approach to the Other will never be good enough, and must
be immediately and endlessly reworked (23, 37). Now, I realize that some
readers might be put off by this kind of abstract discussion where nothing
appears to be in the objective realm of realism.'0 I would contend that
although not tangible, there is nothing more real than the desire to know
the unknown, the thought of the (im)possible, the pas (step/not) on an
unfamiliar and uncertain way; a rhetorical movement or stance that
requires real hope, real faith, real trust, real love and real action.
It is necessary to explore the centrality of language in Levinas' project
precisely because Levinas at times speaks very simply and literally, and
other times is purposefully remote and obscure; some of the significance
of what he is saying is wrapped up in how it is said. The reason Levinas
devotes so much energy to the notion of language and being in terms of the
"Saying" and the "Said" is a result of the problems he faces in trying to
articulate the otherwise than being in a way that does not rely on the
language of ontology. That is, Levinas sees the very language we use to
do our theoretical and practical work as operating on ontological assump-
tions of being-in-the-world. The problem with this for Levinas is that
language necessarily makes "being" comprehend-able as it is represented
in language; language objectifies the Other and thus does ontological517
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 29, Number 3, 2009, periodical, 2009; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc268407/m1/53/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .