Fictional characters, real problems : the search for ethical content in literature / edited by Garry L. Hagberg.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hagberg, Garry, 1952- editor.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics in literature.

Literature and morals.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 389 pages)

Other Title:

Search for ethical content in literature

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

These new essays explore central aspects of the ethical content of literature: character, its formation, and its role in moral discernment; poetic vision in the context of ethical understanding; self-identity and self-understanding; literature's role in moral growth and change; and the historical background of the ethical dimension of literature.

Contents:

Cover; Fictional Characters, Real Problems: The Search for Ethical Content in Literature; Copyright; Table of Contents; Acknowledgments; Notes on the Contributors; Introduction: Five Ethical Aspects of Literature; PART I: Ways of Reading for Ethical Content; Chapter 1: Sophie, Antigone, Elizabeth-Rethinking Ethics by Reading Literature; I. Examples or Something More?; II. The Thin Use-Greenspan and Sophie's Choice; III. The Thick Use-Nussbaum and Antigone; IV. An Open-Ended Use of Literature; V. A Different Look at Sophie; VI. Climbing the Literary Ladder-Moral Philosophy Reconsidered

AcknowledgmentsChapter 2: Caring about Characters; Acknowledgments; Chapter 3: Hamlet and the Problem of Moral Agency; PART II: Matters of Character; Chapter 4: Othello's Paradox: The Place of Character in Literary Experience; (1) Our Conception of Ethical Character; (2) Why We Care about Literary Characters; (3) Seeing Life Through the Lens of Literature; Chapter 5: Character, Social Information, and the Challenge of Psychology; 1. Introduction; 2. Aristotle, Poetry, and Character; 3. Social Psychological Skepticism about Character; 4. A Defense of a Modified Version of the Common View

5. The Big Country6. Summary; Chapter 6: Emma's Extravagance: Jane Austen and the Character-Situation Debate; PART III: Literature, Subjectivity, and Poetic Vision; Chapter 7: The Question of Truth in Literature: Die poetische Auffassung der Welt; 1.; 2.; 3.; 4.; 5.; Chapter 8: The Moral Relevance of Literature and the Limits of Argument: Lessons from Heidegger, Aristotle, and Coetzee; Perceptual Morality and the Limits of Argument: A Sketch of Heidegger and Aristotle on Ethics; Thinking Our Way into Morality: The Case of J. M. Coetzee and for Literature

Seeing Our Problems Clearly: The Case for Phenomenological EthicsChapter 9: An Endless Person: Heidegger, Breton, and Nadja at the Limits of Language; PART IV: Language, Dialogical Identity, and Self-Understanding; Chapter 10: The Dialogic Self in Hamlet: On How Dramatic Form Transforms Philosophical Enquiry; Chapter 11: "The Power of Conversation": Jane Austen's Persuasion and Hans-Georg Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics; 1.; 2.; 3.; Acknowledgments; Chapter 12: Quartet: Wallace's Wittgenstein, Moran's Amis; 1. Gramma's Disappearance; 2. The Self-Censurer; 2(A). The tremendous rakehell

3. The Death of the AuthorPART V: Patterns and Possibilities of Moral Growth; Chapter 13: Moral Development in Pride and Prejudice; 1.; 2.; 3.; 4.; 5.; 6.; 7.; 8.; Chapter 14: The Breadth of Moral Character; 1.; 2.; 3.; 4.; 5.; 6.; 7.; 8.; 9.; 10.; 11.; 12.; 13.; 14.; Chapter 15: Learning To Be Good (or Bad) in (or Through) Literature; I. Introduction, and Some Types of Knowledge and Learning; II. Fiction and Supposition; III. Telling, Asking, and Showing How in Literature; IV. Fictional Assertion and Narrative Transportation; V. Empathy and Mindreading; VI. In and Through

PART VI: Historical Genealogies of Moral-Aesthetic Concepts

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-178339-0

0-19-102481-3