Strangers, Gods And Monsters. Interpreting Otherness

305 Pages·2003·2.069 MB·English

by  Richard Kearney

STRANGERS, GODS AND MONSTERS
Strangers, Gods and Monstersis a fascinating look at how human identity is shaped
by three powerful but enigmatic forces. Often overlooked in accounts of how
we think about ourselves and others, Richard Kearney skilfully shows, with
the help of vivid illustrations, how the human outlook on the world is formed
by the mysterious triumvirate of strangers, gods and monsters.
The first part of the book shows how the figure of the stranger – the
‘barbarian’ for ancient Greece, the ‘savage’ for imperial Europe – defines our
own identity by the very idea that it is the Other, not we, who is unknown.
Kearney then goes on to examine the image of the monster, and with the
aid of powerful examples from ancient Minotaurs to medieval demons and
postmodern enemies, argues that human selfhood itself frequently contains
a monstrous element. In the final part of the book he explores how some
gods are still alive for people today, testifying to the human psyche’s yearning
to slip the shackles of our finitude and death.
Throughout, Richard Kearney shows how strangers, gods and monsters
do not merely reside in myths or fantasies but constitute a central part of our
cultural unconscious. Above all, he argues that until we better understand
how the Other resonates deep within ourselves, we can have little hope of
understanding how our most basic fears and desires manifest themselves in
the external world and how we can learn to live with them.
Richard Kearneyis Professor of Philosophy at Boston College and University
College Dublin. His publications include On Stories, Wake of Imagination and
Postnationalist Ireland(all published by Routledge), and Sam’s Fall(a novel).
‘In this brilliant book, Richard Kearney sets his sights on the hyperbolic
inflation of otherness....Kearney has a finely tuned ear for the often
hysterical workings of the media and popular culture, and in this respect
his chapter reflecting on 9/11 is exemplary....he proves again to be
one of the liveliest philosophical minds in America.’
David Wood, Vanderbilt University
‘In this remarkable book, Richard Kearney turns from deconstruction,
through hermeneutics, to theology, to the possible call of an absolute
other – the God who may be – in order tell real from imaginary
monsters, and deadly enemies from the strangers we should welcome.
With a deft use of theory and a sensitive reading of texts – literary,
cinematic and philosophical – Kearney finds narrative healing for our
fractured lives.’
Gerard Loughlin, University of Newcastle, UK
Praise for Richard Kearney
‘Fascinatingly demonstrates how the modern position of closure can
deconstruct itself and open out again in all kinds of interesting ways.’
Charles Taylor, McGill University
‘I find Kearney’s work powerful...it formulates questions in a way
that is absolutely wonderful...I am impressed and grateful.’
Jacques Derrida
‘In his recent work Richard Kearney has come fully into his own.
A remarkable achievement.’
Paul Ricoeur
STRANGERS, GODS
AND MONSTERS
Interpreting otherness
Richard Kearney
London and New York
First published 2003
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2003 Richard Kearney
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-99471-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–27257–2 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–27258–0 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: strangers, gods and monsters 1
PART I
1 Strangers and scapegoats 23
2 Rights of sacrifice 47
3 Aliens and others 63
4 Evil, monstrosity and the sublime 83
5 On terror 109
PART II
6 Hamlet’s ghosts: from Shakespeare to Joyce 141
7 Melancholy: between gods and monsters 163
8 The immemorial: a task of narrative 179
9 God or Khora? 191
10 Last gods and final things: faith and philosophy 213
v
CONTENTS
Conclusion 229
Notes 233
Index 293
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Uncharted Waters 1
Limbo 23
Mosaic of the Devil 25
Judas hanging 32
Slave hanging 32
Agent Ripley’s last sacrifice 47
Faces merging 54
Portals of sacrifice: Before the sacrifice 54
After the sacrifice 54
The Jew dragon 63
The Irish Frankenstein 66
Extraterrestrials are the True Face of God 78
Wild Indian savages 78
Untitledby Karl Baden, 2001 109
Restrained by an Imposing Anchorby Aida Laleian, 2000 116
Gate Gargoyle #2by Megumi Naitoh, 1999–2000 116
Early impressions of New World inhabitants
by arriving European colonists 119
The Screamby Edvard Munch 163
Melancholia Iby Dürer 173
The Castration of Saturn 173
‘The Container of the Uncontainable’ 191
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank all those – and they were many – who were part of the dialogue
which brought this book through a long process of conception, gestation
and labour to its present published state.
In particular I wish to acknowledge the help and guidance I received
from a number of colleagues at various universities and conferences where I
delivered earlier versions of the chapters in this book as papers or discussions
over the years. These include: David Wood at Vanderbilt; Patrick Burke,
James Risser at Seattle University; Merold Westphal at Fordham; David Tracey
and Chris Shepherd at the University of Chicago; Regina Swartz and
Tom McCarthy at Northwestern; Simon Critchley, Robert Bernasconi and
Françoise Dastur at the Collegium Phenomenologicum, Perugia; William
Desmond at Leuven; Jack Caputo, Timothy Beal, Kevin Hart, Jacques Derrida,
John Milbank, Clayton Crockett, and Jeffrey Bennington at the Villanova
conferences; Jean Greisch and Stanislas Breton at L’Institut Catholique, Paris;
Rene Girard, Monique Schneider and Olivier Mongin at the Cerisy-La-Salle
decades; Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Colette and Julia Kristeva
at the University of Paris; Noam Chomsky at MIT; John McNamara and
Charles Taylor at McGill; Jim Olthuis at the Institute for Christian Studies,
Toronto; Stephen Daniel and John McDermott at Texas A and M University;
Georgia Warnke and Jeff Pettigrove at UC Riverside; Paul Muldoon at
Princeton; John and Laura McCourt at the University of Trieste; Marina
Warner at the International Artists Conference in Belfast; Marek Toman,
Erazim Kohak and Hindrich Pokorny at Charles University Seminar, Prague;
Eileen Rizo-Patron and Martin Dillon at SUNY Binghampton; Hugh Silverman
and Ed Casey at SUNY Stoneybrook; David Carr and Thomas Flynn at Emory;
Jennifer Geddes at the University of Virginia; Michael Dillon and Paul Fletcher
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
at the University of Lancaster; Dominique Janicaud at the University of Nice;
Patrick Masterson, Bo Strath and James Kaye at the European University
Institute in Florence; Denis Donoghue at NYU; Kevin Whelan and Luke
Gibbons, Notre Dame Keogh Centre for Irish Studies; Dominico Jervolino
and Maria Petit at the Hermeneutics Conference, University of Halle; Lisa
Schnell and Charles Guignon at the University of Vermont; Gev Harvey at the
University of Jerusalem; Jeffrey Barash of the University of Picardy; Joseph
O’Leary of the University of Sophia, Tokyo; John Cleary at Maynooth
University; Jean-Francois Courtine and Peter Kemp at the Hermeneutics
Conference, Naples; Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks of the Post-Colonial Studies
Seminar, Harvard; Paul Sheehan at the University of London; Martha
Nussbaum at the Irish Philosophical Society conference, Dublin; Stephen
Houlgate and Andrew Benjamin at Warwick.
I also owe a great debt to my colleagues and friends, closer to home as it
were, at both Boston College and University College Dublin where I have had
the good fortune to teach and research for most of my academic career.
Finally to my assistants at BC, John Manoussakis and Matt Pelletier, I owe
an enormous thanks for their unrelenting assistance, inspiration and
encouragement during the writing and editing of this book. As I do to Tony
Bruce and Muna Khogali at Routledge whose faith, hope and charity made
this book not only possible but actual.
I wish to dedicate this work to the three most important people in my life:
my wife, Anne, and my daughters, Simone and Sarah.
Earlier versions of several of the chapters below have appeared in different
publications. Sections of Chapters 1 to 3 have appeared as ‘Others and Aliens:
Between Good and Evil’ in Evil after Postmodernism: Histories, Narratives, Ethics,
ed. Jennifer Geddes, Routledge, London and New York, 2001; ‘L’Autre et
L’Etranger: Entre Derrida et Ricoeur’ in Philosopher en Français, ed. Jean-François
Mattéi, PUF, Paris, 2001; ‘Strangers and Others: From Deconstruction to
Hermeneutics’ in Critical Horizons, vol. 3, no. 1, 2002; ‘Aliens and Others:
Between Girard and Ricoeur’ in Cultural Values,vol. 3, no. 3, 1999. An extended
version of the Appendix to Chapter 1 has appeared as ‘Le mythe comme bouc
émissaire chez Girard’ in Violence et Vérité, ed. P. Dumouchel and J.-P. Dupuy,
Grasset, Paris, 1985. Shorter and partial versions of Chapter 4 appeared
as ‘Evil, Monstrosity and the Sublime’ in Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, vol. 58,
no. 3, 2001, and as ‘Evil and Others’ in The Hedgehog Review,vol. 2, no. 2, 2000.
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