Already Responsible
In this essay I want to explicate the intuition that literature demands an ethical response that not only precedes interpretation but also serves as its basis. I am not arguing that the response to texts should be ethical, but simply that it is ethical before it is interpretive. The interpretive position adopted by critics of literature is determined not by the "interpretive community" to which they belong, nor by their “a priori” biases and ideological perspective, but by the responsibility they assume toward the text. The community to which a critic belongs and the biases and perspective that give shape to her interpretation are themselves determined by the critic's responsibilities. How we respond to others establishes our commitment to them. The response to a literary text is a pledge and critics bind themselves to a view of it by what they take themselves to be responsible for.
Perhaps the best account of responsibility is that of Emmanuel Levinas. Although the philosophical discussion of responsibility is at least as old as Aristotle's Politics, since the 1940’s the term belongs by rights to Levinas. A naturalized French Jew born in Kovno, Lithuania, 92 percent of whose 30,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis including most of his family, Levinas survived the war as a French officer in a POW camp near Hanover, studying Hegel, Proust, Diderot, and Rousseau (Cohen 115-21).
As shown his own work, "From the Rise of Nihilism" it is likely that he experienced the "belated shame” often experienced by Jews after the Holocaust occurred (220). It shows that he experienced the kind of survivor guilt that gnaws at the conscience of the individual and is expressed clearly in authors like Primo Levi. In fact, Levinas's entire philosophy grows out of the tentative anxiety that one person's life usurps another's. All those who lived through the years 1939 to 1945 "retained a burn on their sides," he remarks, "as though they had to bear for ever the shame of having survived" (221).
Levinas argues in his "Ethics as First Philosophy" that human subjectivity or self-consciousness is “mauvaise conscience,” the feeling of being "not guilty, but accused" (72). Stripped of its intentionality and existing in a condition of passivity, the human subject is put into question. What am I? To be, I have to respond. "But, from that point," Levinas explains, "in affirming this me being, one has to respond to one's right to be" (my emphasis 74).
“Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain.” The Black Cat written by Edgar Allen Poe revels the narrator’s devilish deed. The narrator is in prison and is letting the readers know about what events lead to his imprisonment. In the short story The Black Cat the narrator intentionally kills his wife, for he disliked his wife, he felt no remorse, and he brags about the deed.
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.
A master of the human psyche with the ability to dissect it down to its most basic form, Edgar Allan Poe left the world with some of the darkest, most tortured characters in literature. His characters are not innately evil, or live with the intent to cause harm but instead are people that are living a seemingly normal life. Poe was able to tap into the human condition through characters who took their inner darkness to their chilling end. His stories and characters within them are fascinatingly removed from the lives of the ordinary man but with enough links to engage the reader to question the humanity (or inhumanity) in all of us. Poe’s The Black Cat (1843) takes the reader on such a journey, with a conclusion that leaves the reader confused and questioning how easily a person could fall so deeply into inhumanity under the simple influence of alcohol.
The narrator in “The Black Cat” is the kind of character one likely comes into contact with most in Poe’s works. He is a man who is mad and in his madness commits terrible sins that can only seem justified in their own insane reasoning. He very much denies his madness from the very beginning of the story when he comes right out and says “My very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad I am not.” He makes all the excuses he can come up with for his actions, but they do little more than prove his insanity to the reader. After he viciously gouges out the eye of a cat he is convinced he loves, he admits that his soul is untouched by the guilt he should be overcome with after such an offensive crime. He says “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime which I had been guilty; but it was a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched.” He feels himself overcome with a feeling of perverseness and cannot keep himself from doing things for no other reason than he knows they are wrong. He is not a good man, throughout the story he does multiple evil things without ...
It is the adherence to this statement, which is typical of works that can be classified as literature of the fantastic genre that ensures that the implied reader of Edgar Allan Poe's tale, `The Black Cat' experiences the necessary sense of hesitation and lack of complete closure that is consistent with this genre in its pure form. The writer provides a variety of explanations for seemingly supernatural occurrences, however does not clearly outline a definitive solution for such events. Poe essentially intertwines the notions of the `natural' progression of cause and effect, with the condition of the accepted inclination of man towards perversity. In spite of such explanations, the reader is confronted with the converse realm of a mystical quality, as events that occur are perhaps too coincidental to be considered conventional. Ultimately, it is such allusion to elements of both the real and the supernatural that ensures that the intended audience vacillates between two indecisive conclusions and thus enters the dominion of the fantastic.
“The Black Cat”, written by Edgar A. Poe, has been called “one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories” with a horrific element that just barely “stops short of the wavering line of disgust”. Originally published in 1843 in the United States Saturday Post, this Gothic tale is perhaps also one of Poe’s most extensively analyzed pieces. (Cambell33) Much diversity is seen in the interpretations offered. The black cats are variously conceptualized as symbolic of the narrator’s wife, manifesting the supernatural, representing the narrator’s “intemperance and lost docility”, and reflecting some rapidly diminishing noble facet of the tale-teller’s character or conscience. The narrator himself is described by various analysts as insane, a liar, and
According to the American romanticist writer Edgar Allen Poe, the story of “The Black Cat” is a realistic explanation of the dark nature of the human mind. Allen’s short story leaves the readers attracted to this work mainly because Allan Poe mixes the sentiments of a mysterious narrator. Likewise, the author includes description of social problems as alcoholism, murder, and perversity.
Technology has become a pivotal factor in human history. It has helped build and develop the modern society we see today. However, the more recent and advanced technology is becoming, it is also making a change for the worst as well. Ray Bradbury is trying to show us that technology can consume a human beings life. Whether it is in construction, a factory, or the food industry etc., technology has impressed society to the point of replacing humans in the workforce. Not only has technology negatively affected the adults working in our society, but it has also impacted the development of children in this new generation of smartphones and tablets. Most millennials probably remember the generation above them saying “back in my day we didn't have
If This Is a Man or Survival in Auschwitz), stops to exist; the meanings and applications of words such as “good,” “evil,” “just,” and “unjust” begin to merge and the differences between these opposites turn vague. Continued existence in Auschwitz demanded abolition of one’s self-respect and human dignity. Vulnerability to unending dehumanization certainly directs one to be dehumanized, thrusting one to resort to mental, physical, and social adaptation to be able to preserve one’s life and personality. It is in this adaptation that the line distinguishing right and wrong starts to deform. Primo Levi, a survivor, gives account of his incarceration in the Monowitz- Buna concentration camp.
The ethical dilemma in this situation is knowing this employee is about to get laid off and also knowing he is planning on making a few major purchases which could be financially devistatingto the livelihood of this person and his family. On one had your boss has trusted you with vital information and expects nthing but the utmost professionalism on the other hand you have a moral dilemma on you conscience if you chose not to inform the employee. The question her is can you live with your decion to not say anything and allow the employee to make these major purchases knowing he will be unable to afford them with the lose of his job, do you tell the employee he may want to hold off making any major purchases or shuld you think of more subtle way to approach a conversation about the purchase and possibly make a suggestion hinting to hold off on the
is essential for organizations and employees to behave ethically at work. The CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich; like many leaders, experience decision making dilemmas in a way that impacts the ethical, legal, and fairness decision-making process towards the organization and the employees.
The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with a better understanding of the care a family nurse provides within many facilities in a community. To demonstrate, I will am using my own community Franklin County for this paper. Home visiting programs, community nursing centers, public health departments, home education, and community education are going to be addressed. Hence, Nurses have been involved in the community for years, and have been responsible for piloting many projects geared towards families within their homes.
Ethics refers to the standards for human behavior which are being accepted by society. It can be said in order to be ethical the human beings behave as per standards. Ethical decision making refers to the process of making decisions in which the most ethical alternative is being selected. There are various approaches in determining the ethical standards. Various approaches for determining ethical are: - Common moral benefits, Virtues based, Rights, Justice, Theological, Utilitarian, Deontological etc(Larry, Chobanian, & Wong, 2001). This paper provides the detailed analysis of Rights, virtue, feminist, and common morality theories, and their impact on ethical decision.
In conclusion, there are many different interventions to approach family nursing. Each families’ situation is unique and should be treated that way. The same intervention may not meet the needs of every patient or family. As a family nurse, one must recognize this and choose his/her approach
“The end justifies the means” is the famous quote of Machiavelli (Viroli, 1998) which puts the emphasis of morality on the finale results rather than the actions undertaken to achieve them. Is this claim true in the field of the natural sciences? Whether atomic bombings, as a mean used to end World War II, justifies the death of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What is moral limitation in the acquisition of knowledge in the natural sciences? How is art constrained by moral judgment? Is it applicable to various works of art? Oscar Wilde claimed that “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” (Wilde, 1945). Does it mean that writers should have complete freedom? Or should ethical considerations limit what they say and how they say it?