By Way of Interruption: Levinas and the Ethics of Communication

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This book presents a radically different way of thinking about communication ethics. While modern communication thought has traditionally viewed successful communication as ethically favourable, Pinchevski proposes the contrary: that ethical communication does not ultimately lie in the successful completion of communication but rather in its interruption; that is, in instances where communication falls short, goes astray, or even fails. Such interruptions, however, do not mark the end of the relationship, but rather its very beginning, for within this interruption communication faces the challenge of alterity. Drawing mainly on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Pinchevski explores the status of alterity in prevalent communication theories and Levinas's philosophy of language and communication, especially his distinction between the Said and the Saying, and demonstrates the extent to which communication thought and practice have been preoccupied with the former while seeking to excommunicate the latter. Moving through topics and issues as diverse as the tower of Babel, childhood autism, and the exclusionary dimensions of free speech, Pinchevski illustrates how 'communication' attempts to locate itself as a transcendental mode of locution, which he then 'dislocates' in order to reveal the interruptive possibilities that are compromised by this very act. With a strong interdisciplinary spirit, this work book proposes an intellectual adventure of risk, uncertainty and the possibility of failure in thinking through the ethics of communication as experienced by an encounter with the other.