The Ethics of Reading the Short Story: Literary Humanitarianism in "The Gold Vanity Set"

Abstract

When trying to empathize with suffering textual characters, the reader should not only be conscious of his or her relationship to the sufferer, but also of his or her relationship to the text that tells the sufferer's story. In evaluating the latter relationship, I look to the short story genre to show how when one breaks down assumptions about form a greater reflective space, fewer representational characters, and a resistance to textual "mastery" can develop. I locate my exploration in an early twentieth-century work by Mexican-American writer, Maria Cristina Mena, entitled "The Gold Vanity Set." I explore the various ways that one might achieve a more ethical relationship to the text through the deconstruction of literary assumptions that can impede the realization of human rights and social justice for subaltern groups.