Description
Book SynopsisWhile Plato recommended expelling poets from the ideal society, W. H. Auden famously declared that poetry makes nothing happen. The 19 contributions to the present book avoid such polarized views and, responding in different ways to the “ethical turn” in narrative theory, explore the varied ways in which narratives encourage readers to ponder matters of right and wrong. All work from the premise that the analysis of narrative ethics needs to be linked to a sensitivity to esthetic (narrative) form. The ethical issues are accordingly located on different levels. Some are clearly presented as thematic concerns within the text(s) considered, while others emerge through (or are generated by) the presentation of character and event by means of particular narrative techniques. The objects of analysis include such well-known or canonical texts as Biblical Old Testament stories, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones, Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian and Matthew Lewis’s The Monk. Others concentrate on less-well-known texts written in languages other than English. There are also contributions that investigate theoretical issues in relation to a range of different examples.
Table of ContentsLeonidas Donskis: Editorial Foreword Preface Jeremy Hawthorn and Jakob Lothe: Introduction Part One: Theory J. Hillis Miller: Should We Read or Teach Literature Now? Liesbeth Korthals Altes: Narratology, Ethical Turns, Circularities, and a Meta-Ethical Way Out J. Alexander Bareis: Ethics, the Diachronization of Narratology, and the Margins of Unreliable Narration Part Two: Ethics and Reading Greger Andersson: The Problem of Narratives in the Bible: Moral Issues and Suggested Reading Strategies Jeremy Hawthorn: Reading Fiction: Voyeurism without Shame? Markku Lehtimäki: An Ethics of Reading Sophisticated Narratives: The Example of J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello Jakob Lothe: Authority, Reliability, and the Challenge of Reading: The Narrative Ethics of Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones Part Three: Ethical Responsibility of the Author Katrine Antonsen: Ethical Force of Fictionalization in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen Henrik Skov Nielsen: The Ethics of Literary Borrowing: Risks and Rewards James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz: Twain, Huck, Jim, and Us: Or, the Ethics of Progression in Huckleberry Finn Howard Sklar: “Anything But a Simpleton”: The Ethics of Representing Intellectual Disability in Tarjei Vesaas’s The Birds Part Four: Textual Studies Karin Kukkonen: Adam Smith Meets the Devil: Demonic Pacts and Moral Sentiments in the Gothic Novel Mirja Kokko: The Grieving Mind in Words and Images Dana Ryan Lande: Travels Across Ethical Borders: Anonymity and Space in Nadine Gordimer’s “The Ultimate Safari” Lykke Guanio-Uluru: Narrative Ethics in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Erik van Ooijen: The Palpable Lolita: Form and Affect from the Perspective of Poetics Klaus Brax: The Age of Scientific Racism: Internal Focalization and Narrative Ethics in Toni Morrison’s Beloved Works Cited About the Authors Name Index Subject Index
