Woman as first among equals: a subversive reading of domesticity in "Totality and Infinity"

ENThis essay advances a subversive reading of Levinas’s Totality and Infinity on the subject of Woman and domesticity. It is a subversive reading inasmuch as it leads to a conclusion that Levinas himself does not support, working against at least some of his explicit assertions. However, it has the advantage of proposing a resolution to an intractable ambiguity in the fundamental architectonic of the text and proposing a resolution to what many regard as a fundamental irresolution on the rightful role of Woman. The subversive reading presented here suggests that Woman offers for us the paradigm of a kind of ethical relationship of first among equals. The priority relationship of the kind we find at home is for the ethical subject the beginning of an education of our relationships with strangers who arc also our neighbors, be they far or near. This final point requires a great deal more development than can be offered in the present essay, but suffice it to say that further research would concentrate on the conclusion to be offered here - namely, that the privileged relations of domesticity with spouse and children are a way in to more profound ethical engagement with all persons.