Abstract:

In spite of their similarities in the first glance, the event is essentially different from being present. The fundamental difference lies in that being present, through the truth illusion caused by sounds, as well as its metaphysical narcissistic structure, replaces the event’s originality, contingency, singularity and voidness formed in the repetitive and differential senses, with the dissolution of the event in an individual sense. Thus, the event transforms the temporal nature of being present into an empty temporal nature, without falling into metaphysics any more. According to this distinction, literature, despite of its appearance of being present, is essentially not present in the ordinary sense, as revealed by deconstruction theory, that the meaning as the signified rapidly slips into the scene as the signifier. Instead, literature is the event blocking the directness and transparency of being present. It is not being present but the event that is the correct coordinate for discussing literature. With its thick description of the ethical turn in literary studies, this distinction provides a new perspective for understanding literary actions.

Key words: event, being present, the other, ethical turn