Kojève on Persecution and the Art of Writing

Alexandre Kojève’s essay “L'Empereur Julien et son Art d’écrire” first appeared (in an English translation by James H. Nichols, Jr.) in Leo Strauss’s 1964 festschrift, Ancients and Moderns.1 The context implies its author’s intention of honoring his philosophical interlocutor, as does his explicit statement in the essay’s first section: “I thought I might be able to honor him by trying in my turn to read between the lines of the writings of an author worthy of him.” And yet, we might ask: in what did this honoring consist? The question is less innocuous than it seems. Occasions for honoring are, after all, also occasions for teasing.