![]() ![]() The first movement of human life, thus, positions people in mutual existence, which is fundamental and of equal status. Positioning the other at a distance and making her present positions the one involved in these actions at a distance as well and makes him independent too. That is, one is capable of perceiving the living process in the other. Instead, one starts imagining what the other would ask for, feel, perceive, and think at a given moment. Such an encounter culminates in an event named “making present”: an individual stops perceiving the other as a component present in the world for his own service. ![]() In an essay anthology titled The Knowledge of Man ( Buber 1998a), Buber elaborates on the essence of a genuine encounter among people. This paper seeks to shed light on the inter- and intra-personal relationships depicted in literary pieces focusing on the theme of the double, such as The Double (Dostoyevsky 1997 Saramago 2002), Despair (1965), and Too Much Nina (Orbach 2011), emphasizing the limitations cast by the encounter with the identical other on the protagonist’s self-constitution, as put forward by Buber. However, as the other encountered by a doppelgänger protagonist is not truly “other”, the latter might confront a difficulty in the different stages of Buber’s self-constitution process. He maintains that any person needs another person to obtain confirmation of what she is and is born equipped with the ability to confirm her fellow-person in the same way (1959). Martin Buber sees the existence of the other as essential for the occurrence of self-constitution within an individual. Therefore they face various difficulties related to a threat cast on their unique identity, and this encounter challenges their process of self-definition. ![]() Literary pieces featuring the double depict an encounter between the protagonist and another person, who is her identical other. ![]()
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