Simone Weil’s Ethic of the Other: Explicating Fictions through Fiction, or Looking through the Wrong End of the Telescope

Publication Type

Journal Article

Year of Publication

2010

Author

Johansen, Ruthann Knechel

Journal

CrossCurrents

Volume

60

Number

1

Pages

70-88

Language

English

Keywords

collective
colonialism
O'Connor, Flannery
personal/impersonal

Annotation

Johansen presents Weil’s writings on collectivities and colonialism alongside two of Flannery O’Conner’s short stories in order to see “the mutual illumination they provide on each other’s work” and to assist those today who would “confront residues of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialism and new threats of imperialism” (p. 71). For the most part, Johansen focuses her discussion on two of Weil’s works: “The Colonial Question and the Destiny of the French People” and “Human Personality”. After an exposition of these two works in which she also touches on topics drawn from other parts of the Weil corpus, Johansen offers a brief critique of what she feels is a misguided and overly optimistic assessment of the United States involvement with colonialism. Johansen is particularly interested in Weil’s discussion of personality and the impersonal, and returns to it at the end of the essay after her discussion of Flannery O’Conner.