Would you please post the following announcement? Since I will be out of
the country from August 26 until September 20, I will answer all inquiries
after my return. Thank you.
Annali d'Italianistica
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dey Hall 141 CB# 3170
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3170
Fax: (919) 962 1470 E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://metalab.unc.edu/annali/
AdI 2001
Literature, Criticism, and Ethics
Scholars of the history of criticism are all too aware that ethics has
always played a constant and fundamental role in all critical endeavors.
In this regard Wayne C. Booth writes: "Of all the possible critical
responses to poetry [i.e., "fiction and drama"], the one with the most
sustained written tradition is the question, 'Will the experience of
knowing this poem be good for me or my society?'" ("Ethics and Criticism,"
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics 384). While
undergoing revisions and attacks from Plato to modern times, ethical
criticism, nevertheless, all but disappeared in scholarly literature from
turn-of-the-century Positivist movement until recently. Then, a few
decades ago, the ethical debate suddenly re-emerged, perhaps in connection
with the rise of feminist and ethnic studies or the renewed investigations
into the role of the literary canon.
In nearly a score of scholarly publishing, AdI has investigated many of
the topics pertaining to ethical concerns in literature, from feminist
studies and mystical writings by women to autobiography, anthropological
approaches to literature, and cultural criticism. By devoting to this
topic its 2001 issue, AdI intends to focus directly on the role of ethics
in the writing and reading of literature: in brief, the function of
ethical hermeneutics.
Steeped on the Judeo-Christian and ancient classical traditions throughout
its historical development, Italy's literary culture may be viewed as a
continuous debate on the dignity of human beings, their duty in society,
and their lives' ultimate purpose. One only needs to recall, at the
beginning of Italy's cultural history, St. Francis' Cantico delle creature
and, very recently, Roberto Benigni's reflection on life's beauty and
tragedy in La vita bella. It is a well-known fact that for Dante
Alighieri, relying on St. Thomas and Aristotle, ethics played a preeminent
role in all speculative as well as practical endeavors (CV 2:14).
Nonetheless, the ethical concerns underlying most of Italy's literary
culture, by and large dependent on classical antiquity and the
Judeo-Christian tradition, came under attack during Italy's fairly recent
history, for instance because of Croce's idealism and Marxist and
neo-Marxist approaches to critical investigations.
More recently, the writings of some contemporary theoreticians, such as
Levinas, Ricoeur, Derrida, Foucault, etc., have unquestionably offered
some impetus to the resurgence of contemporary ethical investigations. In
the January 1999 issue of PMLA on literature and ethics, for instance,
those authors offered most of the theoretical framework for the
contributors' critical investigations. At the same time, one finds it
difficult to accept the notion that no other thinker in the western
world's history, except those mentioned above, can provide a valid ground
for current inquiries into ethical concerns. One cannot but hope,
therefore, that Italy's literary culture, with its strong attachment to
its millenary tradition ? from Greek and Roman antiquity to the Middle
Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment, and Romantic era ? may offer an
appropriate and balanced ground for inquiries into the role of ethical
hermeneutics
Faithful to the journal's longstanding tradition of open-mindedness, the
Editors do not intend to impose any specific perspective on the journal's
contributors. At the same time, they would like to propose three areas of
investigation:
1) The theoretical sphere: Theoretical inquiries focusing on the position
of ethics vis--vis the artistic and the aesthetic; the relevancy of ethics
in writing, publishing, and interpreting; the moral and social
responsibilities of literature and hence of criticism; the historical
development of ethical criticism; the ethical dimensions of specific
theoretical approaches;
2) The applied sphere: Ethical hermeneutics applied to the analysis of
literary texts, covering the entire spectrum of Italy's literary culture;
3) The practical sphere: The ethical obligations of the scholar, the
teacher, the publisher.
At the threshold of the third millennium, every one is, more than ever
before, confronted by rapidly evolving technological advancements, the
ongoing changes in the world's political map, and the profound
transformation of individuals' and society's life as it was known until
very recently. One must, therefore, all the more rely on every and each
individual's ability to evaluate and question contemporary society's
myriad choices, alternatives, and possibilities in the public and private
sphere. Hence derives the essentiality, even the primacy of ethics:
namely, the ability the discern what is most appropriate for each
individual's physical, intellectual, and spiritual welfare within the
context of the ever expanding global community and a temporal frame of
reference that goes beyond the ephemeral and therefore cannot but be
teleological.
Prospective contributors are invited to contact the journal's Editor,
either by mail (141 Dey Hall, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3170) or
e-mail (<[log in to unmask]>). All contributions, either in English or
Italian, should be submitted by spring 2001 in diskette and print. The
issue on "Literature, Criticism, and Ethics" will be published in the fall
of 2001.
Dino S. Cervigni
Annali d'Italianistica
UNC-CH, CB # 3170
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3170
http://metalab.unc.edu/annali/
fax: (919) 962 5457
home (919) 942 3582
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