The Self in Moral Space: Life Narrative and the Good

by David Parker

Overview

All of us take our moral bearings from a conception of the good, or a range of goods, that we consider most important. We are in this sense selves in moral space. Building on the work of the philosopher Charles Taylor, among others, David Parker examines a range of classic and contemporary autobiographies—including those of St. Augustine, William Wordsworth, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Gosse, Roland Barthes, Seamus Heaney, and J. M. Coetzee—to reveal a whole domain of life narrative that has been previously ignored, one that enables a new approach to the question of what constitutes a "good" life narrative. Moving from an ethics toward an aesthetics of life writing, Parker follows Wittgenstein's view that ethics and aesthetics are one.

The Self in Moral Space is distinctive in that its key ethical question is not What is it right for the life writer to do? but the broader question What is it good to be? This question opens up an important debate with the dominant postmodern paradigms that prevail in life writing studies today. In Parker's estimation, such paradigms are incapable of explaining why life writing matters in the contemporary context. Life narrative, he argues, faces readers with the perennial ethical question How should a human being live? We need a new reconstructive paradigm, as offered by this book, in order to gain a fuller understanding of life narrative and its humanistic potential.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801445613
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2007
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Parker is Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of several books, including Ethics, Theory, and the Novel and coeditor of Renegotiating Ethics in Literature, Philosophy, and Theory.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction: Life Narrative and the Good     1
Life Narrative and Languages of the Good     11
Making the Best Sense of Lives
Wang Shih-min's "Self-Account": An Exemplary Life
Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes and the Limits of Life Narrative
Nietzsche's Ecce Homo: Inescapable Frameworks of the Good
The Full Range of Goods, Judeo-Christian and Romantic     56
Narratives of Supersession: Augustine's Confessions
Narratives of Supersession: Wordsworth's Prelude
Narrative of Authenticity: Gosse's Father and Son
Authenticity and Recognition: Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman
The Full Range of Goods, Universal and Particular     106
Difference and Its Discontents
Common Humanity and Its Limits: Raimond Gaita's Romulus, My father
The Good Life: Ethical and Aesthetic Value     137
Seamus Heaney: Recognizing the Other
Coetzee's Boyhood: Toward an Aesthetics of Life Narrative
Conclusion: Articulating the Good     169
Notes     177
Bibliography     185
Index     193

What People are Saying About This

John D. Barbour

In this original and important book, David Parker calls for a new paradigm for comprehending life writing and demonstrates what it would look like. His writing is clear and crisp and moves along quickly. The Self in Moral Space will be of immediate interest to literary critics and scholars of life writing but will also appeal greatly to philosophers and scholars of religious studies, because Parker directly engages the theoretical issues related to ethical criticism.

Susanna Egan

David Parker works from a full and clear understanding of current positions in autobiography theory in order to argue that identity, as expressed in life narratives, is invariably situated and determined in moral space, and further, that the quality of that moral space contributes quite significantly to the aesthetic quality of the work. The Self in Moral Space blends philosophy and literary criticism with a richness and finesse that will alter the way we read autobiography.

Paul John Eakin

In a series of inspired and compelling readings David Parker maps an ethicist approach to autobiography that is both illuminating and wise. This fine and powerful book establishes ethics as not only central but also necessary to our understanding of life writing.

Editorial Reviews

David Parker demonstrates the fruitfulness of an ongoing conversation between literature and philosophy. Moral philosophers are paying increasing attention to literary texts for insights that some argue are not to be gained elsewhere. The Self in Moral Space shows that literary theorists may learn equally from philosophers.

Times Literary Supplement - Samantha Vice

"In this original and important book, David Parker calls for a new paradigm for comprehending life writing and demonstrates what it would look like. His writing is clear and crisp and moves along quickly. The Self in Moral Space will be of immediate interest to literary critics and scholars of life writing but will also appeal greatly to philosophers and scholars of religious studies, because Parker directly engages the theoretical issues related to ethical criticism."

John D. Barbour

"In a series of inspired and compelling readings David Parker maps an ethicist approach to autobiography that is both illuminating and wise. This fine and powerful book establishes ethics as not only central but also necessary to our understanding of life writing."

Paul John Eakin

"David Parker works from a full and clear understanding of current positions in autobiography theory in order to argue that identity, as expressed in life narratives, is invariably situated and determined in moral space, and further, that the quality of that moral space contributes quite significantly to the aesthetic quality of the work. The Self in Moral Space blends philosophy and literary criticism with a richness and finesse that will alter the way we read autobiography."

Susanna Egan

"David Parker demonstrates the fruitfulness of an ongoing conversation between literature and philosophy. Moral philosophers are paying increasing attention to literary texts for insights that some argue are not to be gained elsewhere. The Self in Moral Space shows that literary theorists may learn equally from philosophers."—Samantha Vice, Times Literary Supplement, August 8, 2008

"In a series of inspired and compelling readings David Parker maps an ethicist approach to autobiography that is both illuminating and wise. This fine and powerful book establishes ethics as not only central but also necessary to our understanding of life writing."—Paul John Eakin, editor of The Ethics of Life Writing

"David Parker works from a full and clear understanding of current positions in autobiography theory in order to argue that identity, as expressed in life narratives, is invariably situated and determined in moral space, and further, that the quality of that moral space contributes quite significantly to the aesthetic quality of the work. The Self in Moral Space blends philosophy and literary criticism with a richness and finesse that will alter the way we read autobiography."—Susanna Egan, University of British Columbia

"In this original and important book, David Parker calls for a new paradigm for comprehending life writing and demonstrates what it would look like. His writing is clear and crisp and moves along quickly. The Self in Moral Space will be of immediate interest to literary critics and scholars of life writing but will also appeal greatly to philosophers and scholars of religious studies, because Parker directly engages the theoretical issues related to ethical criticism."—John D. Barbour, Martin Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy, St. Olaf College

From the Publisher