Transcript Literary Theory and Methodology

Literary Theory and
Methodology
Session Six: The Ethics of
Reading
Agenda
• What is ethics?
• The Ethics of reading / ethical criticism
and narrative
• From liberal humanism to structuralism
and poststructuralism
• Examples
What is ethics?
• Ethics = moral philosophy
• Universalism, relativism, pluralism
– Good / bad
– Right / wrong
– Virtuous / sinful
Ethical criticism and narrative
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Why narrative? Why not poetry?
Narrative
Story / plot
Character / characterization
The ethics of reading / ethical
criticism
• Liberal humanism: Universalism
– The author
– The characters
• Structuralism / poststructuralism:
– The text
– The reader
The ethics of reading / ethical
criticism
• Liberal humanism
• The author (and the text)
– Complex experience of life
– Moral intensity, moral intelligence
– Spiritual health
The ethics of reading / ethical
criticism
• The tradition of liberal humanism
(universalism)
– Characters = real human beings
– Motivations and actions
– Thought and speech
– Actions and consequences
– Evaluations and discussion
The ethics of reading / ethical
criticism
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Feminism
Postcolonialist theory
Gay, lesbian and queer theory
Green reading / ecocriticism
The ethics of reading / ethical
criticism
• (Structuralism:
– Sign systems rather than authors
– Characterization rather than character)
• Poststructuralism
– The openness of the text
– The signifier rather than the signified
Jeanette Winterson, Written on the
Body
• ”It’s the clichés that cause all the trouble”
• The narrator-protagonist’s invention of
Louise
• Louise’s invention of herself
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,
Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus
• The dangers of excessive ambition
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
John Milton, Paradise Lost
James Joyce, ”The Dead”
• What ought Gabriel to do / to have done
regarding his dinner speach?
• What happens to Gabriel? Death or new
start?
Nadine Gordimer, ”The Moment
Before the Gun Went Off”