Title: Fictional Characters, Real Problems: The Search for Ethical Content in Literature
Abstract: The essays collected in Fictional Characters, Real Problems: The Search for Ethical Content in Literature present unique perspectives on the representation of ethical concerns in literature. Edited by Garry L. Hagberg, these essays address different ways that ethical and aesthetic concerns are interwoven in works of long-form literature such as novels and theatrical works. The majority of these essays also support a related claim: due to their long-form nature, these types of literary works provide a reader with ethical perspectives that are both more holistic and nuanced than is possible in typical philosophical thought experiments. Long-form literature affords the time and space to show us the breadth and depth of both our ethical motivations and their consequences. Hagberg has divided this work into six sections of three essays each. Part One, ‘Ways of Reading for Ethical Content’, introduces us to the type of ethical perspectives addressed in later essays and how these methods of representing ethical concerns differ from the ways philosophers typically deal with ethical questions. Nora Hämäläinen opens this section with ‘Sophie, Antigone, Elizabeth—Rethinking Ethics by Reading Literature’. Here Hämäläinen differentiates between three different usages for literature as it relates to moral philosophy. Her ‘thin’ usage is exemplified by Sophie’s ‘choice’ at the end of William Styron’s novel. In its thin usage, Sophie’s decision regarding who is to live is removed from its context and dealt with largely in isolation much like a philosophical thought experiment. The ‘thick’ usage exemplified in the tension between Antigone and Creon is more nuanced but still viewed largely in isolation. In contrast Hämäläinen argues for an ‘open-ended’ interpretation of ethical concerns in literature. If we look at the character of Sophie from an open-ended perspective, we see that her decision cannot be viewed in isolation. Instead, this decision affects and is affected by everything we learn of Sophie throughout Styron’s novel. This moral and philosophical use of literature ‘refuses to cooperate in the act of translation from literature to philosophy, from representation to argument, from experience to explanation’ (23).
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-11-29
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 41
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