時間、多產與父職：列維納斯與女性她者

Time, Fecundity, and Paternity: Levinas and the Feminine Other

本文試圖理清出生、時間、無限、撫觸與多產富饒之間的關係，來探討列維納斯筆下兩種「超越面對面」（beyond the face）的「曖昧關係」：父職與愛人關係。文章首先指出列維納斯從父子關係來看待出生與生產的意義，小孩作為既熟悉又陌生、既「是我」亦「非我」的他者，對父親自我造成的「實質性轉變」，是一種精神上、時間上的「多產」關係。富饒打斷了時間的重複循環，打開了「不連續時間」的「無限性」，成就一無限的主體。本文第二部份指出父子間富饒的倫理關係，事實上是經由對女性「她」者的仲介及排除而達成，女性主義者伊希嘉黑（Luce Irigaray）則認為富饒已存在於戀人的愛欲關係之中，本文閱讀伊希嘉黑對列維納斯「愛欲現象學」中「沈淪的欲女」與「被遺忘的母親」兩種形象的批判，並從「撫觸」的觀點出發，以補充列維納斯尚未深度探討的「性別倫理」。

This article examines the relation between birth, time, fecundity, and gender in Emmanuel Levinas' discussion of two kinds of relationships which go ＂beyond the face＂-paternity and lovers. The first section points out that in Totality and Infinity paternity is understood exclusively as the transcendent relationship of a father to his son. It is the paternal self who is ＂fecund＂, giving birth to a son who renews and opens the father's own relation to the past and the future. Giving birth is paternity, engendering promise and responsibility for the Other and calling the father forth to a transformative renewal of the self (trans-substantiation). The second part draws attention to Irigaray's view of the forgetting of the feminine Other and the maternal in Levinas. The self's relation with the feminine Other is ＂pre＂ ethical or even ＂non＂ ethical, in that paternity is only possible given the ＂detour＂ and mediation through the erotic encounter with the feminine Other. Irigaray proposes that fecundity exists between lovers prior to the advent of the son; the lovers' caress refers to a time that is not one's own, a time of infinite discontinuity between the generations. This discontinuity traces back to the mother's generation without whom there will be no future generations.