The Pre-Text of Ethics is a very readable introduction to both Derrida and Levinas focusing on
the latter's influence on deconstruction especially on the meaning of justice and the notion
of the gift. Without deconstructing the beauty of Levinas's vision Diane Moira Duncan aims to
show that Levinas's views on women contradict his general project which aims to defend
heteronamy against philosophical narcissism. This book represents an organic overview of the
development of Levinas's thought and situates a critique of his phenomenology of the feminine
face and philosophy of woman in this context. It makes a significant contribution to the
question of the «ethics of deconstruction».
