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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Radical Uncertainty: Judith Butler And A Theory Of Character, Shady E. Cosgrove
Radical Uncertainty: Judith Butler And A Theory Of Character, Shady E. Cosgrove
Shady E Cosgrove
This paper will develop a theory of character based on Judith Butler's ideas of subjectivity and gender construction. It will summarise Butler's position and explore the practicalities of reading realist characters as performative repetitions. Then, it will discuss Butler's notion of agency and the subversive repetition, and how realist characters can demonstrate the radical uncertainty inherent in Butler's notion of agency s specifically when texts are rewritten in such a way that characters `question' their `original' depictions. The example of interest here will be Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea in relation to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, with particular attention paid …
Reading For Peace? Literature As Activism – An Investigation Into New Literary Ethics And The Novel, Shady E. Cosgrove
Reading For Peace? Literature As Activism – An Investigation Into New Literary Ethics And The Novel, Shady E. Cosgrove
Shady E Cosgrove
Literary ethicists like Dorothy J Hale and narratologists like James Phelan have argued that the reading process makes literary novels worthy of ethical investigation. That is, it’s not just a book’s content – which may debate norms and values – but the process of reading that inspires the reader to consider Other points of view. This alterity, new ethicists argue, can lead to increased empathy and thus more thoughtful decision-making within the ‘actual’ world. In fact, Hale (2007: 189) says empathetic literary training is a ‘pre-condition for positive social change’. This may work well theoretically, but what practical issues does …