How is our subjection to the social law experienced? What is the role played by responsibility in our response to normative calls? Does lawful address embrace social vulnerability or rather does it cover its problem? The paper discusses the genesis of the responsible subjectivity from a phe-nomenological and a social standpoint, confronting Levinas’ phenomenological perspective on ethical responsibility with Althusser’s and Butler’s account of the subjective interpellation. If eth-ical and normative interpellation are often seen as overlapping, this paper discusses their differ-ences as a critical resource for the phenomenological theory of subjectivity. The problem of the social law is analyzed in light of the material phenomenality of social suffering and of the ambiv-alence at work at the heart of any process of subjectivation.
