Abstract
Homer’s Odyssey is, with its alternation of authorial and I-narration, a highly intriguing narrative; moreover, with its constant inquiry into the nature and function of narration, it also proves to be a narrative poetics of great importance. The article presents a new departure by elaborating a theory of ethics from the metanarrative dimension of the Odyssey. Significant ideas are in this context the notions that narrative gives structure and meaning to life and experience, that narrative involves a conflict between good and evil and a tension between truth and lying and that in narrative the ethical interacts with the aesthetic. The article links insights gained from the study of Homer’s epic to modern theoretical approaches to the problem of an ethics of narration. Particular emphasis is given to the concept of narrative self-constitution, as formulated in Paul Ricœur’s work Soi-même comme un autre (Oneself as Another). After a discussion of extant positions in theory and criticism, the study elaborates a concept of ethical narratology, which is based on the theory that in narration there is an interdependence of ethics and aesthetics. In the course of the discussion, distinctions are drawn between ethics and morality and between ethics as part of philosophy and ethics as part of narratology. In the article’s final section, the applicability of the theory is demonstrated via analysis of passages from Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and James Joyce’s Ulysses.
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© 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.