Abstract
This paper takes narrative ethics as the approach to analyze ethical dimensions of the tensions between self-narrative and other-narrative in Saul Bellow’s Herzog, and indicates that self-narrative represents the protagonist’s appeal of identity construction, other-narrative symbolizes external forces deconstructing his identity, and narrative reconciliation between self-narrative and other-narrative represents possibilities of his identity construction. Representational ethics shows that Herzog’s self-narrative attempts to construct identity through fictionalizing ideal self at the expense of real self, then to consolidate new identities by assimilating the absolute other. However, narrational ethics suggests that other-narrative represents the absolute other’s deconstruction of new identities constructed by Herzog’s subjective intention, and puts all new constructed identities into suspension. Identity reconstruction can be possible only when Herzog faces the gap between real self and ideal self, confronts existence of the absolute other, responds to its ethical call, and actualizes reconciliation between self-narrative and other narrative. Besides, hermeneutic ethics indicates that the reader also has a role to play in Herzog’s process of identity construction due to tensions between self-narrative and other-narrative, which bestows the reader with constantly switched ethical positions and distances from the text, thus makes the reader’s responsibility towards the text an infinite movement.
Highlights
This paper takes Adam Newton’s narrative ethics as a way to analyze the ethical dimension of narrative tensions in Saul Bellow’s Herzog
Identity reconstruction can be possible only when Herzog faces the gap between real self and ideal self, confronts existence of the absolute other, responds to its ethical call, and actualizes reconciliation between self-narrative and other narrative
Hermeneutic ethics indicates that the reader has a role to play in Herzog’s process of identity construction due to tensions between self-narrative and other-narrative, which bestows the reader with constantly switched ethical positions and distances from the text, makes the reader’s responsibility towards the text an infinite movement
Summary
This paper takes Adam Newton’s narrative ethics as a way to analyze the ethical dimension of narrative tensions in Saul Bellow’s Herzog. 181) the ethical dimension of narrative tensions in Herzog, especially the role those tensions play in the process of Herzog’s identity construction, will be the focus of this paper. 7) Current theories of ethical turn mainly generates from two schools, one is American school including critics like Martha Nussbaum, Wayne booth, James Phelan, and Hills Miller; the other is European School mainly including philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas, Paul Ricoeur, etc The former school attempts to discover ethical enlightenment from given literary works relies mainly on textual criticism while the latter school starts from the internal revolution within philosophy, and leads to new perspectives on literary criticism This paper holds two basic ethical hypotheses before analyzing those narrative tensions: first, identification of any postmodern human being requires self identification and others’ identification, identity construction of any individual or ethnicity is a intersubjective mission; second, identity construction is a dynamic, constantly adjusting process in postmodern world identification becomes an infinite movement from the self towards the other
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