Home and Exile in Levinas and Beyond

Colloque international organisé par Viktoras Bachmetjevas (Vytautas Magnus University, head of French Philosophy Cluster) et Danielle Cohen-Levinas (Sorbonne Université, responsable du Collège des études juives et de philosophie contemporaine – Centre Emmanuel Levinas)

Mardi 27 juin 2023

Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania

Putvinskio st. 23, Room 312

The topics of home and exile are extremely important if not immediately connected in Emmanuel Levinas‘s oeuvre. On the one hand, some of the most original and insightful pages of Totality and Infinity are devoted to the notion of home and habitation. Levinas discusses the question of what it means to feel at home in the world, the related concepts of familiality, possession, work, and body. Sometimes in explicit and always implicit discussion with Heidegger, Levinas develops an original account of habitation. On the other hand, exile, if not as explicitly, is ever present in Levinas’s discussions in the concepts of uprootedness, losing one’s country [dépaysement] and, of course, the encounter with the stranger.

The goal of this study day is to revisit, juxtapose, and critically engage these two dimensions of Levinas’s thought. This event marks the beginning of the collaboration between Collège des études juives et de philosophie contemporaine at the University of Sorbonne and French Philosophy Cluster at Vytautas Magnus University.

Working languages: English & French.

10 :00 Ouverture par Viktoras Bachmetjevas et Danielle Cohen-Levinas

Words of Welcome Michael Levinas

Présidence : Viktoras Bachmetjevas

10:15 – 11:15 Keynote

Inaugural Lecture

Jean-Luc Marion (Académie Française)

- 15 minute break

11:30 – 12:30

Le temps de l’exil

Danielle Cohen-Levinas (Sorbonne Université, « Collège des études juives et de philosophie contemporaine -Centre Emmanuel Levinas ; Archives Husserl de l’ENS-CNRS)

12:30 – 13:30

La demeure et l’exode

Philippe Capelle-Dumont (Université de Strasbourg)

Lunch Break

Présidence : Danielle Cohen-Levinas

15:00 – 16:00

On the Temporal Horizons of Nostalgic Experience: Nostalgia for the Past, Present, and Future

Saulius Geniušas (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

16:00 – 17:00

Tentative Ethics of Home

Viktoras Bachmetjevas (Vytautas Magnus University)

- 15 minute break

17:15 – 18:15

Emmanuel Levinas and His Family in Kaunas

Arvydas Pakštalis (Vytautas Magnus University)

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at [email protected]