Bárbara Arizti & Silvia Martínez-Falquina, eds. and Intro. On the Turn: The Ethics of Fiction in Contemporary Narrative in English. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. ISBN: 9781847183583. 424pp.
ON THE TURN: THE ETHICS OF FICTION IN CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE IN
ENGLISH is an attempt to listen to the various voices that participate
in the current dialogue on the relationship between fiction and
ethics. Participants include internationally recognized scholars like
Andrew Gibson, Patricia Waugh, or Gordon Henry. All in all,
contributors cover a significant geographical diversity, and their
approaches also vary from general theory to particular examples, from
traditional interpretations to post-deconstruction ethics. In its
search for a better understanding of the global/nationalistic world of
today, On the Turn therefore moves beyond the scope of literary
criticism into issues of wider, more urgent relevance.
"What should I, ought I, may I, must I, do, if anything, on the basis
of reading, when I have read a literary work? What does reading a
literary work authorize, or even command, me to do? Writing an essay
about the work would be one response. On the Turn is a wonderfully
diverse, learned, challenging, provocative, even sometimes
controversial, collection of essays on the ethical dimensions of
literature. This book is testimony to the continued lively interest in
the ethical turn in literary studies. The authors are, for the most
part, concerned with ethical theory and with ethically charged
situations in postmodern novels in English, as they shape readers?
values and judgments. Poetry and non-print media are, however, also
discussed."
J. HILLIS MILLER, UCI Distinguished Research Professor of Comparative
Literature and English, University of California at Irvine
"The Ethics of Fiction is an important and exciting volume that
explores with energy and rigour the connections between ethics and
literature. Relating literature to philosophy, neurobiology, politics,
religion, deconstruction and psychoanalysis, the twenty two
contributors richly advance ?the ethical turn? recently embraced by
many critics. Works by authors such as Ian McEwan, A.S. Byatt, Charles
Palliser, Hanif Kureishi, J.M. Coetzee, David Malouf, George Orwell,
E.L. Doctorow, Flannery O?Connor, Toni Morrison and Paul Auster are
presented in a new light and complex topics such as territoriality,
the nature of love, Islamophobia and the politics of representation
are tackled with imagination and intellectual integrity. This book is
essential reading for anyone interested in the dialogue between ethics
and literature."
AVRIL HORNER, Professor of English, Kingston University
BÁRBARA ARIZTI teaches English literature at the University of
Zaragoza. Her current field of research is Postcolonial literature and
criticism, with special emphasis on the relationship between
literature and intimacy in Australian and Caribbean literatures.
SILVIA MARTÍNEZ-FALQUINA teaches North American literature at the
University of Zaragoza. Her research interests include contemporary
U.S. and minority literatures. She is a specialist in Native American
fiction, on which she has published widely.