Levinas e il femminile. Tra stereotipo ed etica

The issue of the relationship between Levinas and the feminine has been a central role in recent levinasian studies and represents one of the places where critics are most in disagreement. In fact, there are those who highlight the devaluing and stereotypical representation of woman in a subordinate position with respect to male subjectivity, reducing her to the space of the house or to erotic pleasure; while others focus mainly on the importance of the maternal sense of ethical subjectivity. The aim of this article is to show all the places where Levinas talks about the role of the female and to reconstruct the critical debate on them. In doing this, we will try to answer urgent questions that characterize the current feminist philosophies: how to think together about vulnerability, responsibility and a dispossessed subject without ending up supporting a conservative vision that justifies forms of submission and subordination? To answer this question, we will show the main female figures that we encounter in the author's thought, illustrating the specific role of each of them within his work. At that point we will analyze the debate that has developed around this theme and we will show our personal conclusions.