Loving the Neighbor and Questioning the Nation in Nineteenth-century Literature

Abstract

The figure of the neighbor in itself is interesting as it lies beyond the binary opposition formed by friend and enemy, or by that person I identify with, on the one hand, and that complete stranger I may see as an irreducible Other, on the other. The neighbor, as a figure that does not belong to the immediate private space of the familial and domestic circle but who is still within the circle of physical proximity inthe community, is relevant for political and for ethical reasons. This essay surveys passages by thinkers Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman, Maurice Blanchot, Judith Butler, Roberto Esposito, Sigmund Freud, Ernesto Laclau, Emmanuel Levinas, Kenneth Reinhard, Franz Rosenzweig, Eric Santner, Richard Sennett and Slavoj Žižek, among others, sampling some positions in the debate about the practicality of the precept “Love your neighbor as yourself”.