Committee Chair

Guy, Matthew Wayne

Committee Member

Stuart, Christopher; Palmer, Heather

Department

Dept. of English

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This thesis will, firstly, assume a line of eco-deconstructive reasoning, which takes as its point of departure from other approaches to the environment the basic premises of deconstruction, which aim to de-center the ontological and epistemological assumptions of Western thought about the subject and language, and apply it to the concept of the human as a distinct and, most importantly, privileged being as this privilege has operated within language and culture, thereby demonstrating how climate catastrophe constitutes a fundamental rupture in traditional ontology. Secondly, I will turn towards the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, as in present in his God, Death, and Time and Totality and Infinity, and bring the anthropocentrism at the heart of his philosophy to bear the weight of responsibility we owe to, not just our human neighbors but, more significantly, to our nonhuman neighbors at a time when those nonhuman others can no longer go unrecognized.

Degree

M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.

Date

12-2025

Subject

Ecoliterature; Environmental responsibility; Semiotics and literature

Name

Levinas, Chanonas, 1914-

Keyword

Levinas; Responsibility; Climate Change; Ecology; Deconstruction; Semiotics

Discipline

English Language and Literature

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

vi, 82 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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