Habitat and Habitus

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the ethical function of literature in Magris’s most recent and still untranslated essay collections (La storia non è finita, Livelli di guardia, La vita non è innocente, Letteratura e ideologia, La letteratura è la mia vendetta, Segreti e no), which contextualize in contemporary society the historical, political, and philosophical issues that Magris addresses in his fiction. Writing for Magris is a form of relocation, an adventure toward an unattainable promised homeland, which makes us feel simultaneously in the unknown and at home but with the awareness of not owning a home. A comparative exploration of the secret in Magris and Derrida shows how, unlike deconstruction, precariousness ascribes to the writer the responsibility to look for meaning and to defend shareable principles and values able to promote tolerance and pluralism—to build what Magris defines as a liveable dwelling in life, a habitable collective reality where individuals and communities can recognize and respect their diversity.