Introduction

literature and the return to ethics

Andrew Hadfield

Dominic Rainsford

Tim Woods

pp. 1-14

in: Andrew Hadfield, Dominic Rainsford, Tim Woods (eds), The ethics in literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999

Abstract

Steven Connor has recently commented on the current ubiquity of ethical debates in literary studies: "The word "ethics' seems to have replaced "textuality" as the most charged term in the vocabulary of contemporary literary and cultural theory."¹ A careful search through the catalogues of academic publishers, along the shelves of contemporary journals in humanities' libraries, or through the review pages of broadsheet newspapers and supplements will reveal the force of Connor's observation. What is the reason for the obsessive attention paid to the question of morality? Is it just another passing intellectual fad?

Cited authors

Connor Steven