Amir Bairamy

A Levinasian Reading of Saul Bellow's Selected Works: a New Look to Saul Bellow's Characters Amir Bairamy

Ethical criticism seeks to give ethical interpretations of literary texts. Among ethical philosophers, Emmanuel Levinas as a prominent ethical thinker puts ethics prior to philosophy. For him, ethics is, first and foremost, born on the concrete level of person to person contact. He believes that by looking at the face of the other, the other becomes our neighbor. And we are unethical person unless we have responsibility for him or her. This responsibility toward others makes our subjectivity and leads us to have an ethical life. Saul Bellow?s novels Dangling Man, Seize the Day and The Victim circulate around the conflict between the Self and the Other. This research?s scope is to show that Saul Bellow?s works in general and these three novels in specific are meant to expose ethical interpretations. Getting rid of alienation and accept the presence of others, according to Levinas, makes our lives ethical. The heroes of these novels experience this process. it is demonstrated that Bellowian naïve heroes are not created in vain. They are created to show fraternity and friendship.