By Way of Interruption: Levinas and the Ethics of Communication

THREE Traces of Babel

THREE Traces of Babel All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar’s teeth. —Antonin Artaud, Indian Culture and Here Lies nd the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.” With these words begins the biblical story of Noah’s descendants .As they journeyed from the east and found a land, they set out to do the insurmountable, to transcend themselves, to build a tower, “the top whereof may reach to heaven.” They ventured to make their name famous before being scattered into all lands. God then came down to see the city and the tower and said: “Behold, it is one people and they all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this. Neither will they leave off their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.” God descended on the city and confounded their language, “that they may not understand one another’s speech.” He confused the language so they could no longer understand one another, abolishing the enterprise and scattering them into all lands. He then named the city Babel “because there the language of the whole earth was confounded.” 103 “A 104 By Way of Interruption The biblical story of the confusion of languages upholds in a uniquely rich way many of the fears and longings associated with language as an experience of social life. It is no coincidence that numerous volumes reflecting on the meaning and nature of language reverberate directly or indirectly with this story, specifically, the hopes and the perils both in having a universal language and in the fallout of linguistic quandary. The theme of this chapter is the relationship between language and ethics as reflected by the story of Babel and by what it has come to signify. However, my intention is not simply to show that this story inspires or figures the ways in which this relationship has been conceived; such a claim would belong to a mythological analysis, which is beyond the scope of the present study. Instead, I propose to regard the story of Babel as the touchstone by which traditional and current questions about the nature of human communication together with the solutions they dictate have been defined and explored. As will become evident in the following pages, traces of Babel are found in the various levels of this discussion. The lessons derived from the confusion of languages point toward two major approaches. The first regards the linguistic reality after Babel as a problem to be overcome, as the diversity of idioms prevents the creation of greater understanding. The confusion is to be undone by perfecting language as a means of communication beyond the specificities of individuality, culture and nation. The second approach, conversely, deems linguistic multiplicity as both intra- and interlinguistic, that is, immanent not only between languages but also within each language. The difference between speakers and languages indicates something essential to linguistic interaction in particular and to communication in general, which should be acknowledged and even safeguarded. The theoretical, intellectual and ethical motivations of these approaches are at the focus of this chapter. The first section will discuss two of the main scholarly endeavors toward establishing a universal language: Esperanto and Basic English. The two extend from elaborate philosophical and ideo- logical perspectives associated with Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof’s work in developing the artificial language of Esperanto and with C. K. Ogden’s exploration of a simplified version of the English language . The following section will propose an alternative interpretation of the linguistic confusion associated with Babel. The story will serve as an entry point for approaching questions of language and ethics from a deconstructive perspective while circumscribing the event of incomprehension as bearing a special ethical significance. The irreducible incompatibility of languages and speakers gives rise to the challenge of translating, an issue that will be further explored in the next section focusing in particular on the accounts of Walter Benjamin and Franz Rosenzweig. I will attempt to outline translation as a paradigm of communication that implies a special involvement with alterity. Finally, I will turn to Tzevetan Todorov’s historical account of the conquest of America, which I believe might reverberate most acutely the main themes of the discussion. Undoing Babel The construction of a universal language has been a theme accompanying modern thought as early as the seventeenth century, following Latin’s demise as...