Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Ethics in Postmodern Fiction PDF full book. Access full book title Ethics in Postmodern Fiction by Barbara Schwerdtfeger. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Barbara Schwerdtfeger Publisher: Universitatsverlag Winter ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 264
Book Description
Postmodern texts have generally been associated with a radical challenge of established conventions and with an "anything goes" mentality, which seems to exclude serious ethical discussion. While the postmodern texts of the American novel and short-story writers Donald Barthelme and William Gass indeed challenge traditional ethical rules, they are nonetheless deeply concerned with moral questions. Using contemporary ethics as its theoretical framework, the study shows that the fiction of Barthelme and Gass not only makes readers aware of the complexity of ethical issues but also argues that the premise for good ethical behavior is to have the right - postmodern - attitude: to be open-minded, flexible, and able to deal with the ambiguities of life. Retrospectively, these findings can also be applied to other postmodern writers to reveal the hidden ethical dimensions of their fictions.
Author: Barbara Schwerdtfeger Publisher: Universitatsverlag Winter ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 264
Book Description
Postmodern texts have generally been associated with a radical challenge of established conventions and with an "anything goes" mentality, which seems to exclude serious ethical discussion. While the postmodern texts of the American novel and short-story writers Donald Barthelme and William Gass indeed challenge traditional ethical rules, they are nonetheless deeply concerned with moral questions. Using contemporary ethics as its theoretical framework, the study shows that the fiction of Barthelme and Gass not only makes readers aware of the complexity of ethical issues but also argues that the premise for good ethical behavior is to have the right - postmodern - attitude: to be open-minded, flexible, and able to deal with the ambiguities of life. Retrospectively, these findings can also be applied to other postmodern writers to reveal the hidden ethical dimensions of their fictions.
Author: Dagmar Krause Publisher: Königshausen & Neumann ISBN: 9783826030055 Category : Ethics in literature Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
Timothy Findley (1930-2002) is one of the most important contemporary Canadian writers. His novels have been classified as postmodern, exhibiting characteristic features such as parody, historiographic metafiction, and hybrid genres. This classification of Findley as a postmodern writer, however, largely neglects the fact that Findley is deeply committed to the exploration of certain ethical and political themes. Recurring topics in his work are, for instance, fascism, environmental concerns, and the problem of responsibility. Sparked off by the fascinating question of how postmodernism and ethics can be reconciled at all, and inspired by the so-called ethical turn in the literary theory of the 1990s, this study supplies a closer look at Findley's ethics with regard to its postmodern potential. A detailed analysis of five of his novels (The Wars, Famous Last Words, Not Wanted on the Voyage, The Telling of Lies and Headhunter) explores the ethical dimension of Findleys work and its consequences for his categorization as a postmodern writer.
Author: Andrew Gibson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134638655 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
In Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel Andrew Gibson sets out to demonstrate that postmodern theory has actually made possible an ethical discourse around fiction. Each chapter elaborates and discusses a particular aspect of Levinas' thought and raises questions for that thought and its bearing on the novel. It also contains detailed analyses of particular texts. Part of the book's originality is its concentration on a range of modernist and postmodern novels which have seldom if ever served as the basis for a larger ethical theory of fiction. Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel discusses among others the writings of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Jane Austen, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust and Salman Rushdie.
Author: Graham Matthews Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1441134395 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
What is the significance of writing in the wake of postmodernism? The previous decade has seen a growing interest in criticism of postmodern ethics and aesthetics from theorists and writers. This book begins to answer what art form or critical methodology might take its place. Exploring the work of six contemporary novelists - Bret Easton Ellis, J.G. Ballard, Will Self, Michel Houellebecq, Tama Janowitz and Chuck Palahniuk - Ethics and Desire in the Wake of Postmodernism delivers a series of interventions into six key areas of contemporary debate: fear, nihilism, revolution, ethics, enjoyment and feminism. The book goes on to develop an innovative critical methodology which reinvigorates the ability of art and literature to engage in ideological critique. Rather than valorising separatism, plurality or indeterminacy, this approach delivers a critical framework which enacts a radical de-centering of the fundamental coordinates of contemporary society.
Author: Deborah C. Bowen Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP ISBN: 0773536892 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
"Postmodernism's critics often accuse the movement of being dangerously amoral because of its apparent wariness of concepts such as truth, ethics, and justice. Stories of the Middle Space explores the possibility of "postmodernism-with-a-conscience" and examines a variety of British and Canadian postmodern fiction to show how twentieth-century critical theory can be brought into fruitful dialogue with a faith-based perspective." "Highlighting the wide variety of ethical concerns considered by writers such as Timothy Findley, Thomas King, Carol Shields, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, and Salman Rushdie, Deborah Bowen makes the case for a new category of "postmodern realism" and shows how contemporary stories about "the real" and "the good" are constructed. Applying theoretical insights from Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin, Bowen investigates categories of postmodern realism such as magic realism, parody, and metafiction while laying the groundwork for Christian readings of a medium that is often perceived as largely irreligious." "An illuminating study of well-known contemporary writers, Stories of the Middle Space is a critically nuanced and methodologically innovative work that reads the postmodern from a faith-based perspectives to create new literary insights." "Deborah Bowen addresses the ethical concerns of a wide variety of postmodern fiction from a faith-based perspective that engages with the decentred discourses of post-structuralism. She suggests that a focus on the middle space between language and the world not only provides new insights into the construction of the real and the notion of a "good" story but also resituates the possibility of Christian reading in a largely post-Christian era"--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Canan Savkay Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN: 145678983X Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
Examining the impact of poststructuralist theories on the writings of four of the most eminent contemporary novelists, this book argues that the postmodern approach to language has given rise to fiction's ongoing exploration of ethics and the relation to the Other. In a globalised world that is marked by cruelty and intolerance, the contemporary novel appears to be preoccupied with ways to explore the reasons for violence and to find alternative ways for reconciliation. This book undertakes an in-depth study of the fiction of four leading contemporary novelists and draws attention to the ideas they share with the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Although Levinas's concept of ethics is mainly based on the responsibility to the other person and therefore appears to be confined to an interpersonal level, it should be noted that Levinas's philosophy emerged from personal suffering during the Nazi regime. Having to witness the cruelty that man can inflict onto others, Levinas developed a philosophy that revolves around the responsibility of the self for the other person. This book undertakes a close text analysis and reveals how the novels in discussion share with Levinas the view that political and social justice has to start with the personal relation to the other.
Author: Elizabeth Wren-Owens Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1443810770 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
Postmodern Ethics offers a new perspective on debates surrounding the role of the intellectual in Italian society, and provides an original reading of two important Italian contemporary writers, Leonardo Sciascia and Antonio Tabucchi. It examines the ways in which the two writers use literature to engage with their socio-political environment in a climate informed by the doubts and scepticism of postmodernism, after traditional forms of impegno had been abandoned. Postmodern Ethics explores ways in which Tabucchi and Sciascia further their engagement through embracing the very factors which problematized traditional committed writing, such as the absence of fixed truths, the inability of language to fully communicate ideas and intertextuality. Postmodern Ethics provides an innovative new reading of Tabucchi’s works. It challenges the standard view in critical literature that his writing may be divided into ‘engaged’ texts which dialogue with society and ‘postmodern’ texts which focus on literary interiority, suggesting instead that socio-political engagement underpins all of his works. It also offers a new lens on Sciascia’s writing, unpacking why Sciascia, unlike his contemporaries, is able to maintain a belief in literature as a means of dialoguing with society. Postmodern Ethics explores the ways in which Tabucchi and Sciascia approach issues of terrorism, justice, the anti-mafia movement, immigration and the value of reading in connected yet distinct ways, suggesting that a close genealogy may be drawn between these two key intellectual figures.
Author: Jae-seong Lee Publisher: Lexington Books ISBN: 1498519210 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
This study advances contemporary postmodern/poststructural critical theory, literary criticism in particular, with the help of Mahāyāna—especially Ch’an/Seon (Chinese and Korean Zen)—Buddhist thought. The quest for theinfinity of the Other (West) and Emptiness or the true I (East) contributes to the exploration of the contemporary critical issues of ethics and infinity. Such an approach will awaken our sense of unrepresented, genuine transcendence and immanence; The Buddhist Emptiness shows us the absolute Other illuminated on a vaster scale. The theory section explores and links Eastern and Western philosophies, switching between the two. While discussing in depth Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, Lacan, Deleuze, and Nancy, this study gradually guides the reader from the contemporary Western thought on the Other and infinity to the Buddhist vision of Emptiness, the ultimate reality. To overcome the dualistic mode of thought inherent in tradition of Western metaphysics, this exploration follows the line that observes Nāgārjuna and the imprint of Ch’an teachings that are most prevalent in South Korean Buddhism. The last three chapters demonstrate a Levinasian and Seon Buddhist approach to the book of Job, part of the Judeo-Christian Bible, as being a more literary than religious text, and the excess of the Gothic mood in the two most distinguished and widely celebrated novels—Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The three texts compel readers to confront the infinity of the absolute Other or Emptiness. The Grand Prize Winner of the 7th Wonhyo Academic Awards from the Korean Buddhism Promotion Foundation.
Author: Zuzanna Ladyga Publisher: Peter Lang ISBN: 9783631591093 Category : Ethics in literature Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
What is postmodern literary subjectivity? How to talk about it without falling in the trap of negative hyper-essentialism or being seduced by exuberant lit speak? One way out of this dilemma, as this book suggests, is via a redefinition of the concept in the context of Emmanuel Levinas and his radical ethics. By defining subjectivity as an ethically charged act of language, Levinas provides a fresh perspective on the often trivialized aspects of postmodern poetics such as referentiality and affect construction strategies. The foregrounding of the ethical dimension of those poetic elements has far-reaching consequences for how we read postmodern texts and understand postmodernism in general. Thus, to prove the benefits of the Levinasian approach, the author applies it to the work of the canonical American postmodernist, Donald Barthelme, and explains the distinctly ethical character of his apparently surfictional experiments.
Author: Barbara Schwerdtfeger
Author: Barbara Schwerdtfeger
Author: Dagmar Krause
Author: Andrew Gibson
Author: Ricardo Miguel-Alfonso
Author: Graham Matthews
Author: Deborah C. Bowen
Author: Canan Savkay
Author: Elizabeth Wren-Owens
Author: Jae-seong Lee
Author: Zuzanna Ladyga