Exile, Society and Community: Levinasian Analysis to the Limits of (Not) Belonging

This paper employs Emmanuel Levinas's ethical phenomenology, wherein the ethical responsibility to the other is formed in relation with the other. The self and the other are bound together through the ethical questioning caused by the other, which pushes subjectivities into movement; to leave our comfort zones and venture into a metaphorical state of exile. However, through exile, our subjectivities emerge as beings-in-question, where we become aware of our entanglements with others. Subsequently, the limits and complexities of (not) belonging are examined through a phenomenological analysis of exile, comparing the implications of situating these inquires in society or community. While Levinas's formulation of responsibility has typically been grounded in community, I contend that community's formation through commonality and sameness undermines the Levinasian ethical call to be open to be affected by difference. This is illustrated by the limits and complexities of (not) belonging to a community. The tension between difference and commonness fosters a sense of (not) belonging when it is neither possible nor desirable to fully subscribe to the commonness of the community to which we are expected to belong. Subsequently, I argue that a more apt foundation for enacting the subject's responsibility to the other is society, as belonging to a society is not defined by commonness but by the realisation that we are entangled through difference