Towards an Ethical Literary Criticism
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Nie Zhenzhao
Abstract
Ethical literary criticism reads interprets and analyzes literature from an ethical perspective. It argues that literature is a unique expression of ethic and morality within a certain historical period, and that literature is not just an art of language but rather an art of text. In light of ethical literary criticism, moral enlightenment and education are literature’s primary function, while aesthetic appreciation is merely second to it. Specifically, ethical literary criticism seeks to unpack the ethical features of literary works, to describe characters and their lives from the vantage point of ethics, and to make ethical judgments about them. In the history of human civilization, mankind underwent two important processes: natural selection and ethical selection. Natural selection allowed human beings to evolve from apes physically, whereas ethical selection distinguishes them from animals spiritually. In an ethical sense, mankind is the outcome of the Sphinx factor, which can be seen as the combination of the human and animal factors. The Sphinx factor is the central element expressed in literary works.
Works Cited
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Note
This work was supported by The National Social Science Fund of China, grant number 13&ZD128.
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- General introduction
- Ethical Literary Criticism: East and West
- From Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology
- The Ethics of (Fictional) Form: Persuasiveness and Perspective Taking from the Point of View of Cognitive Literary Studies
- Leger(e)demain: Reading and the Restless Hand
- Towards an Ethical Literary Criticism
- The Unbearable Lightness of Growth: Ethical Consciousness and Ethical Selection in Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden
- Visions of the End of Culture: Civilization, Barbarism, and the Realm beyond Forgiveness
- Wie deutsch ist es?
- The Danse Macabre and Shakespeare’s Battle of Shrewsbury
- Die pfadabhängige Matrix des Labyrinths
- Reviews
- Francesco Bono, Luigi Cimmino, Giorgio Pangaro (Hgg.):Morte a Venezia. Thomas Mann / Luchino Visconti: un confronto. Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2013 (Cinema. Passaggi di confine. Collana diretta da Christian Uva), 238 S., ISBN 978-88-498-3937-1, € 14,00.
- Philosopher en langues. Les intraduisibles en traduction. Sous la direction de Barbara Cassin. Paris: Éditions Rue d’Ulm / Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure 2014, Zweite Auflage, 218 Seiten. Evelyn Dueck:L’Étranger intime. Les traductions françaises de l’œuvre de Paul Celan (1971–2010). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2014 [Communicatio. Studien zur europäischen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte], 466 Seiten.
- Elke Sturm-Trigonakis:Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur. Translated from the German by Athanasia Margoni and Maria Kaisar. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013.
- Kushner, Eva (ed.).L’époque de la Renaissance. Tome III. Maturations et mutations (1520–1560). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2011. 636 pp. (A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXVI)
- Claudia Hillebrandt/Elisabeth Kampmann (Hrsg.):Sympathie und Literatur. Zur Relevanz des Sympathiekonzeptes für die Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2014 (= Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft; 19), 308 Seiten.
- Loescher, Jens:Schreiben. Literarische und wissenschaftliche Innovationen bei Lichtenberg, Jean Paul, Goethe. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2014. 454 S.
- Ernst van Alphen:Staging the Archive. Art and Photography in the Age of New Media. London: Reaktion Books, 2014.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- General introduction
- Ethical Literary Criticism: East and West
- From Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology
- The Ethics of (Fictional) Form: Persuasiveness and Perspective Taking from the Point of View of Cognitive Literary Studies
- Leger(e)demain: Reading and the Restless Hand
- Towards an Ethical Literary Criticism
- The Unbearable Lightness of Growth: Ethical Consciousness and Ethical Selection in Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden
- Visions of the End of Culture: Civilization, Barbarism, and the Realm beyond Forgiveness
- Wie deutsch ist es?
- The Danse Macabre and Shakespeare’s Battle of Shrewsbury
- Die pfadabhängige Matrix des Labyrinths
- Reviews
- Francesco Bono, Luigi Cimmino, Giorgio Pangaro (Hgg.):Morte a Venezia. Thomas Mann / Luchino Visconti: un confronto. Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2013 (Cinema. Passaggi di confine. Collana diretta da Christian Uva), 238 S., ISBN 978-88-498-3937-1, € 14,00.
- Philosopher en langues. Les intraduisibles en traduction. Sous la direction de Barbara Cassin. Paris: Éditions Rue d’Ulm / Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure 2014, Zweite Auflage, 218 Seiten. Evelyn Dueck:L’Étranger intime. Les traductions françaises de l’œuvre de Paul Celan (1971–2010). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2014 [Communicatio. Studien zur europäischen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte], 466 Seiten.
- Elke Sturm-Trigonakis:Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur. Translated from the German by Athanasia Margoni and Maria Kaisar. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013.
- Kushner, Eva (ed.).L’époque de la Renaissance. Tome III. Maturations et mutations (1520–1560). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2011. 636 pp. (A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXVI)
- Claudia Hillebrandt/Elisabeth Kampmann (Hrsg.):Sympathie und Literatur. Zur Relevanz des Sympathiekonzeptes für die Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2014 (= Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft; 19), 308 Seiten.
- Loescher, Jens:Schreiben. Literarische und wissenschaftliche Innovationen bei Lichtenberg, Jean Paul, Goethe. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2014. 454 S.
- Ernst van Alphen:Staging the Archive. Art and Photography in the Age of New Media. London: Reaktion Books, 2014.
