Attending the Dying: Images of Compassion
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Anouk Zuurmond
Abstract
Reading a novel about a dying person and the people attending the dying, one can not only reflect upon the moral involvement between the literary characters depicted, but also upon the way in which the reader takes the position of a “bystander” in this scene. In two novels, The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy and The Big Ward by the Dutch author Jacoba van Velde, this moral involvement can be interpreted as a form of “compassion”. Martha Nussbaum’s concept of “compassionate imagination” offers a perspective on the way in which the reader can be involved in this literary depiction of the dying. However, the Aristotelian criteria that Nussbaum proposes for the rational judgement of compassion and her ambitions that literature can “raise society’s floor” by developing “compassionate imagination” in readers, are difficult to apply to these specific cases. In comparing both novels, it is exactly the differences between them – the historical context and social classes depicted – that bring to light a problematic presupposition in Nussbaum, namely the a-historical universality in the compassionate involvement. A re-interpretation of one of the Aristotelian criteria for compassion leaves room for a “compassionate imagination” not based on a rational judgement but on a sense of shared vulnerability that is precisely evoked by the literary depiction of the dying.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank dr. E. Peeren (University of Amsterdam) and dr. Y. van Dijk (Leiden University) for their suggestions and criticisms.
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© 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- Mapping the Unreal: Max Blecher in the Shadow of the Avant-garde
- On Concepts and Naps
- Reading Machines: On the Surface of Meaning – Beyond the Surface of Discourse
- Paper Trails
- Attending the Dying: Images of Compassion
- Reading Allegory and Nature in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Vision of the Language of Nature
- Extending the Battlefield: Genocide and the Family in Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Secrets No More
- Form und Formauflösung nach Paul Ernst: Die Suche nach einem sittlichen Formideal
- The Hot-House Atmosphere of Cell Number 40[4]: Space and Identity in Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon
- «Une promesse faite à des nègres serait sans valeur»
- Reviews
- Michael Neecke und Lu Jiang (Hrsg.): „Unübersetzbar?“ Zur Kritik der literarischen Übersetzung, Hamburg, Verlag Dr. Kovač, 2013. Ravi Kumar (ed.): The Role of Translation in Nation Building, New Delhi: Modlingua, 2012.
- Tomáš Kubíček, Jan Wiendl (Hgg.), Moderna/Moderny, Olomouc: UPOL 2013. ISBN 978-80-244-3418-6.
- Jiang Chengyong and Wu Yuesu: A Thematic Exploration of 20th Century Western Literature. Beijing: China’s Social Sciences Press, 2013.
- Letteratura e geografia. Atlanti, modelli, letture. A cura di Francesco Fiorentino e Carla Solivetti. Macerata: Quodlibet/Studio 2012, 226 Seiten. Raumlektüren. Der Spatial Turn und die Literatur der Moderne, hg. von Tim Mehigan, Alan Corkhill. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag 2013, 320 Seiten.
- Adele Parker / Stephenie Young (eds.): Transnationalism and Resistance: Experience and Experiment in Women’s Writing. Amsterdam, New York, NY: Rodopi, 2013, 301 Seiten
- Jan Wilm, Mark Nixon (eds.). Samuel Beckett und die deutsche Literatur. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2013.
- Kirsten Sandrock and Owain Wright (eds.): Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions. Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2013, pp. 240, ISBN 978-90-420-3635-2
- Amir Eshel, Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2013, 355 pages. Amir Eshel, Zukünftigkeit. Die zeitgenössische Literatur und die Vergangenheit. Aus dem Englischen von Irmgard Hölscher, Jüdischer Verlag im Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2012, 343 Seiten.
- Christian Kiening, Heinrich Adolf (Hg.): Der absolute Film. Dokumente der Medienavantgarde (1912–1936). (Reihe Medienwandel – Medienwechsel – Medienwissen. Band 25). Zürich: Chronos Verlag, 2012, 512 Seiten
- Claudia Gronemann, Tanja Schwan, Cornelia Sieber (Hgg.), Strategien von Autorschaft in der Romania. Zur Neukonzipierung einer Kategorie im Rahmen literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftlich basierter Geschlechtertheorien, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2012.
- Handbuch Komparatistik. Theorien, Arbeitsfelder, Wissenspraxis, hg. v. Rüdiger Zymner u. Achim Hölter, Stuttgart/Weimar: Verlag J.B. Metzler, 2013.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- Mapping the Unreal: Max Blecher in the Shadow of the Avant-garde
- On Concepts and Naps
- Reading Machines: On the Surface of Meaning – Beyond the Surface of Discourse
- Paper Trails
- Attending the Dying: Images of Compassion
- Reading Allegory and Nature in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Vision of the Language of Nature
- Extending the Battlefield: Genocide and the Family in Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Secrets No More
- Form und Formauflösung nach Paul Ernst: Die Suche nach einem sittlichen Formideal
- The Hot-House Atmosphere of Cell Number 40[4]: Space and Identity in Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon
- «Une promesse faite à des nègres serait sans valeur»
- Reviews
- Michael Neecke und Lu Jiang (Hrsg.): „Unübersetzbar?“ Zur Kritik der literarischen Übersetzung, Hamburg, Verlag Dr. Kovač, 2013. Ravi Kumar (ed.): The Role of Translation in Nation Building, New Delhi: Modlingua, 2012.
- Tomáš Kubíček, Jan Wiendl (Hgg.), Moderna/Moderny, Olomouc: UPOL 2013. ISBN 978-80-244-3418-6.
- Jiang Chengyong and Wu Yuesu: A Thematic Exploration of 20th Century Western Literature. Beijing: China’s Social Sciences Press, 2013.
- Letteratura e geografia. Atlanti, modelli, letture. A cura di Francesco Fiorentino e Carla Solivetti. Macerata: Quodlibet/Studio 2012, 226 Seiten. Raumlektüren. Der Spatial Turn und die Literatur der Moderne, hg. von Tim Mehigan, Alan Corkhill. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag 2013, 320 Seiten.
- Adele Parker / Stephenie Young (eds.): Transnationalism and Resistance: Experience and Experiment in Women’s Writing. Amsterdam, New York, NY: Rodopi, 2013, 301 Seiten
- Jan Wilm, Mark Nixon (eds.). Samuel Beckett und die deutsche Literatur. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2013.
- Kirsten Sandrock and Owain Wright (eds.): Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions. Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2013, pp. 240, ISBN 978-90-420-3635-2
- Amir Eshel, Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2013, 355 pages. Amir Eshel, Zukünftigkeit. Die zeitgenössische Literatur und die Vergangenheit. Aus dem Englischen von Irmgard Hölscher, Jüdischer Verlag im Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2012, 343 Seiten.
- Christian Kiening, Heinrich Adolf (Hg.): Der absolute Film. Dokumente der Medienavantgarde (1912–1936). (Reihe Medienwandel – Medienwechsel – Medienwissen. Band 25). Zürich: Chronos Verlag, 2012, 512 Seiten
- Claudia Gronemann, Tanja Schwan, Cornelia Sieber (Hgg.), Strategien von Autorschaft in der Romania. Zur Neukonzipierung einer Kategorie im Rahmen literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftlich basierter Geschlechtertheorien, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2012.
- Handbuch Komparatistik. Theorien, Arbeitsfelder, Wissenspraxis, hg. v. Rüdiger Zymner u. Achim Hölter, Stuttgart/Weimar: Verlag J.B. Metzler, 2013.
