The Trajectory of Leo Sammer in roberto Bolaño's 2666: Notes on ethics, autonomy and responsability

Notas sobre Ética, Autonomia e Responsabilidade

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-1124.v0i21p1-15

Keywords:

Ethics; Autonomy; Totalitarianism; Roberto Bolaño

Abstract

Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 introduces to the reader Leo Sammer, a nazi official who was in charge of the transportation of workers and supplies for the Reich. All of the sudden, Sammer receives by mistake a shipment of five hundred jews coming from Greece and a few days later the order to exterminate them. This episode and its ethical consequences yield the present article. First of all, Sammer is compared to Adolf Eichmann, a prominent member of the Nazi Party, in order to evaluate Sammer’s responsability and guilty in the context of the totalitarian regime. Secondly, the ethical orientation of Sammer is seen from the perspective of Ricoeur’s, Badiou’s and Lévinas’ respective ideas concerning the Self, the Other and the autonomy of of the individual facing the Evil. Finally, the article affirms that the ambivalente discourse of Sammer is in fact the repetition of the totalitarian pattern from which he persistently tries to detach himself.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Antonio Barros de Brito Jr, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

    Professor Adjunto do Departamento de Linguística, Filologia e Teoria Literária

References

Downloads

Published

2018-11-20

Issue

No. 21 (2018): O Tabu das Letras

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

How to Cite

Brito Jr, A. B. de. (2018). The Trajectory of Leo Sammer in roberto Bolaño’s 2666: Notes on ethics, autonomy and responsability: Notas sobre Ética, Autonomia e Responsabilidade. Revista Criação & Crítica, 21, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-1124.v0i21p1-15