Re-framing vulnerability and wound ethics: Colm Tóibín’s the testament of Mary

Abstract

In keeping with the current ethical turn in humanities, this paper analyses Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary as a literary testimony of post-Levinasian relationality. Such relationality – whereby the One and the Other both meet, ‘emasculate’ and give meaning to each other – draws on vulnerability. That is, the novella shows that to be human is to be exposed and vulnerable to the Other. This is not necessarily negative because such exposure relies on the ethics of care that Mary performs particularly with her neighbour Farina, her cousin Mary, Jesus and Lazarus. Indeed, the wounds both men suffer are not only traumatic symptoms, but also relational meeting points. Hence, the article proves that wound ethics (vulnerability being the etymological root of the wound) is recast into interpersonal care to re-present the encounter with the Other.