The Ethical Significance of Literature: Moving Beyond the Moralism versus Autonomism Debate

Abstract

The last twenty years have seen a growing interest in the ethical value and ethical significance of literature. Some argue that literary works have moral affects on their readers while some others claim that literature can be approached only from an aesthetical point of view. If literary works have such an effect on the reader, the question is how do they achieve this function? What differs them from other kinds of texts? In this paper my aim is to reveal the peculiar ethical significance of literary works. In order to achieve this aim, I will argue that these works should be approached as fictional and aesthetic texts. Hence, I will also side with autonomist who defends the aesthetic and fictional autonomy of literary works. I will try to show that moralism and autonomism do not have to be formulated as rival camps, rather one can defend the ethical significance of literature by staying in the autonomist sphere. Moreover, one has to stay in the autonomist sphere if she wants to understand the peculiar ethical power of literature; the ethical power of literature as literature.