Ethics, Literature, and Theory

Reviews / Votes

Since the time of Plato, our culture has debated whether literature can fairly be judged by ethical standards or whether it is essentially beyond the realm of ethics. This unique collection, which brings together many eloquent voices on opposing sides of the question, offers a wonderful way to gain perspective on the great debate and to introduce it to students. -- Gerald Graff, Professor of English, University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Clueless in Academe A rapidly growing number of serious and attentive readers are finding rich rewards in exploring the overlap between philosophy and literature, particularly when they scrutinize the commentary that moral discourse and dramatic fiction can offer each other. Editor Stephen George has a keen and informed sense of the issues of overlap, cross-fertilization and mutual criticism between fiction and ethics and, as a result, his Ethics, Literature, and Theory covers the terrain masterfully. Helpful and persuasive essays represent the 'permeable membrane' view of moral philosophy and literature while George also sees to it that the agnostics of the literature and moral philosophy interface are heard from. -- Patrick K. Dooley, Professor of Philosophy, St. Bonaventure University While Wayne Booth is certainly correct in his assertion that 'ethical criticism can never be simple,' Ethics, Literature, and Theory: An Introductory Reader offers, hands down, the most lucid and comprehensive anthology to ethics and literary study in the humanities. Rigorous, illuminating, and endlessly thought-provoking, Ethics, Literature, and Theory affords us with a vital intellectual arena for pondering the ethical questions that impact not only the texts that we read, but our lives as well. -- Kenneth Womack, Associate Professor of English at Penn State, Altoona