|
|
|
| Response, Face, Justice and Empathy in Vollmann’s Works: A Postmodern Ethics Towards the Other |
|
|
|
|
Abstract Abstract: William Vollmann is one of the most important contemporary writers in America, best known for his description of marginal people. His works often reflect his philosophical thinking about the Other, which is a central concept in postmodern ethics. By applying the view of postmodern ethics, this paper analyzes in depth the various other images in his representative works Whores for Gloria, Poor People and Europe Central as well as the ethical connotations in his treatise Rising up and Rising down, revealing that his concepts of literary creation are in essence postmodern ethics based on the ethical correlation between the Self and the Other. It concludes that his writing techniques are to use empathy to respond to the other narratives, face the other face and write the other histories so as to eliminate violence against the other and maintain the justice to the other. This paper also argues that his works return to the ethical value of literature and can guide people towards kindness and peace. Vollman’s ethics are of great theoretical and practical significance under the context of the postmodern fragmentation of ethics and the pluralistic, multi-polar pattern of today’s world.
Key words: the Other; face; justice; empathy; postmodern ethics
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
