From Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology

Abstract

Homer’s Odyssey is, with its alternation of authorial and I-narration, a highly intriguing narrative; moreover, with its constant inquiry into the nature and function of narration, it also proves to be a narrative poetics of great importance. The article presents a new departure by elaborating a theory of ethics from the metanarrative dimension of the Odyssey. Significant ideas are in this context the notions that narrative gives structure and meaning to life and experience, that narrative involves a conflict between good and evil and a tension between truth and lying and that in narrative the ethical interacts with the aesthetic. The article links insights gained from the study of Homer’s epic to modern theoretical approaches to the problem of an ethics of narration. Particular emphasis is given to the concept of narrative self-constitution, as formulated in Paul Ricœur’s work Soi-même comme un autre (Oneself as Another). After a discussion of extant positions in theory and criticism, the study elaborates a concept of ethical narratology, which is based on the theory that in narration there is an interdependence of ethics and aesthetics. In the course of the discussion, distinctions are drawn between ethics and morality and between ethics as part of philosophy and ethics as part of narratology. In the article’s final section, the applicability of the theory is demonstrated via analysis of passages from Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and James Joyce’s Ulysses.