Synopses & Reviews
Part I examines literary conventions as forms of ethical indecision in studies of Empson, Hamlet, and Elizabethan portraiture. Part II defines the "ethics of the unsaid" as an act of resistance and judgment in the work of Austen, Irigaray, and Chaucer. Part III considers discursive "networks," formally in Boethius, technologically in Joyce, and academically in the policy of modern universities on tenure. This book includes essays by Elaine Bandor, Maggie Berg, David Braybrooke, Abbott Conway, Leslie Duer, Dean Frye, Donald F. Theall, Gary Wihl, and David Williams, and honours A.E. Malloch.
Review
"I think that anyone who shares some of A.E. Malloch's wide interests and deep convictions will find in it much profit and pleasure." William Blissett, Department of English, University of Toronto "this is a highly readable and surprisingly coherent group of essays...this admirable tribute...is sure to meet with the warm approval of all who read it." Paul Fry, Department of English, Yale University
Synopsis
Literature and Ethics presents an original definition of the relation between literature and ethics at a time when the whole concept of ethical literary criticism is being widely reconsidered. The book focuses on ethical conditions that are presupposed in literary communication between authors and readers, rather than on ethical themes within literature.
About the Author
David Williams is professor of English, St. Paul's College, University of Manitoba, and the author of several novels and critical books, including Imagined Nations: Reflections on Media in Canadian Fiction.