Adopting the perspective and methodology of ethical literary criticism pioneered by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao, this article explores how ethical dilemmas work in the process of turning ordinary people into perpetrators in collective violence in Jonathan Little’s The Kindly Ones. By restoring the ethical environment and inspecting the three levels of ethical dilemmas encountered by the perpetrator-protagonist, Max Aue, this article explores into the impact of these dilemmas and the transformation of ethical identity on his behavior. It delves into the complexities individuals encounter in upholding moral principles and undertaking just actions amid the manipulation and distortion of collective morality by totalitarian regimes, in order to offer a new perspective for understanding the ethical challenges faced by ordinary people as perpetrators in collective atrocities such as the Holocaust.
Since the difference between Western ethical criticism and ethical literary criticism has not been clarified, some arguments from the debate between Posner and Nussbaum on ethical criticism are prone to be extended to the discussion on ethical literary criticism. it is important to note that the debate does not really focus on ethical literary criticism but rather addresses the qualifications and responsibilities of literary criticism in the public sphere. Furthermore, it raises concerns regarding intellectual identity transformation and the resulting crisis in ethics of criticism. Although this debate is not directly related to ethical literary criticism, it provides valuable insights for further refining the theoretical framework of ethical literary criticism. As a socially engaged branch of literary theory, ethical literary criticism can address unresolved issues raised by this debate through a deeper exploration of its concept of “literary market.” In response to challenges of identity transformation in liberal studies, intellectuals may find new solutions through embracing ethical literary criticism.
The indeterminacy of postmodernism brings about moral fuzziness and moral relativism, which leads to the lack of restraint of rationalism in individual choice, resulting in excessive freedom of individual choice and the “floating” state of individuals. Individuals need to achieve self-choice through self-discipline, and then complete their own moral construction. Postmodern ethics emphasizes the choice in the relationship with others, the responsibility for others to realize the correct ethical choice, and thus repair the moral contract and rebuild the social community. This ethical thought is also deeply embedded in children’s literature, helping child readers to understand and learn how to rely on their inner selves to make choices between egoism and altruism. Through trial and error, Laila, the child heroine in His Dark Materials Trilogy, finally learns to abandon the kinship-based ethical standards and make ethical choices out of her moral responsibility for others. During a series of choices, Laila exerts her own initiative, not only to save the world with her own actions, but also to inherit the spirit of altruism as her duty, to build the Republic of Heaven, and to become the restorer and reconstructor of social moral order.
The acceptance of ethical literary criticism in Japan has gone through three stages: initial period, high period and falling period. The main reason for its decline lies in the prevalent misunderstanding in Japanese academia, simply equating ethical literary criticism with Chinese traditional ethical criticism or moral criticism. To dispel misunderstandings and deepen Japanese scholars’ understanding of ethical literary criticism, it is necessary to emphasize the interdisciplinary characteristic of ethical literary criticism within the academic community in Japan. Taking into account the characteristics of Japanese literature and the research tradition of Japanese academia, this paper suggests three interdisciplinary approaches: 1) the interdisciplinary path of literature and psychology, which enjoys a broad research base in Japan; 2) the interdisciplinary path of literature and brain science, an area that has not gained substantial research in Japan; 3) the interdisciplinary path of literature and science and technology with significant development prospects.
As a brilliant representative of the British Romantic poets in the 19th century, John Keats developed his own unique style, comforted the dry and with- ered soul with poetry, and dwelt in the world by composing lyrics, which exerted a profound impact on British literature in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. His sonnets were abundant in metaphorical narrative images, which sketched myriad entities in the world and depicted numerous bleak and sad, heart-breaking and shocking scenes that mirrored the joys and sorrows of all living beings and reflected their ideal for a comfortable and tranquil life. Metaphor is the foundation of poetry, and images are the essence of poetic aesthetics. We resorted to contemporary metaphorology for an exploration and uncovered that the metaphori- cal narrative is an approach for human beings to organize and conceive of behaviors in plots. The marvel of Keats’ sonnets lies in the fact that these sonnets, starting from metaphorical images that are ubiquitous and omnipotent in daily life, help weave fascinating and intoxicating masterpieces depending on narrative structures.
Science fiction is essentially on the construction of an ideal society that transcends the status quo, either to demonstrate the prospect of human development, or to rewrite history. Therefore, science fiction is basically a kind of utopian writing. In the 20th century, as a driving force of the prosperity and development of science fiction worldwide, American science fiction displayed two contrasting trends: the utopian thought and the dystopian. The utopian thought has two constructing modes as “technology-society view” and “society-technology view”; while the dystopian presents two critical consciousness as “technology and culture” vs “politics and ethics”. Under the circumstances of network and digitization, science fiction has entered the epoch of “digital utopia” and “digital dystopia”.
Jiang Chengyong is one of the most distinguished Chinese scholars of 19th-century western literature, whose works have guided our research in many directions and opened up new avenues for explorations. This paper attempts to survey Jiang’s scholarship of 19th-century western literature and to highlight his achievements in this field from three aspects. First, it interrogates Jiang’s efforts invested in 19th-century Western literary trends, with reference to his ambitious pursuit of constructing a critical discourse for foreign literature studies. Second, it attempts to reveal Jiang’s methodological innovations in his works on 19th- century western literature, especially in regards to his significant proposal for an interdisciplinary approach to foreign literature in “Internet-globalization” era. Third, it traces Jiang’s exploration of the dialectical relationship between literature and science which is typically embodied in 19th-century western writers’ “resistance” to and “acceptance” of science.
The Illusion of the Empire: Civilization, Nation, and the Incomplete Community, a monograph written by professor Liang Zhan, analyzes from a global outlook the ups and downs of the empires existing in the 20th century through the descriptions in the following several literary works: Kafka’s Beim Bau der chinesis Mauer, Franҁois Bernier’s Travels in the Great Mughul Empire, Anderson’s Imag- ined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread Nationalism, and Kang Youwei’s A Book of the Great Harmony. The book attempts to make the readers realize something concerning a sense of western superiority resulted from so-called superior civilization and the illusion of the empire in the new era. The book is rich in thought-provoking materials and worth depth-reading. It concludes that the 20th century is better to be regarded as a century with the entanglement of the empires and the nations rather than a century of “Nation-State.” The book provides the read- ers with a lively model to further enjoy some intriguingly conceived literary works such as Kafka’s Beim Bau der chinesis Mauer in a more profound way.
