This article explores the moral teachings in the fall of Adam and Eve (Gen 2:4–3:24) from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. According to the theory of three stages in human ...civilization—natural, ethical and scientific selection, the fall of Adam and Eve represents the historical process of human civilization going from natural selection to ethical selection. It is ethical selection that enables Adam and Eve to have ethical consciousness and distinguish themselves from animals, which provides ideas for the birth and growth of humans and highlights the function of “moral teaching and learning” in children's education. Besides, the so-called original sin is the animal factor remained in human beings after natural selection, which can bring about different ethical predicaments of “to be or not to be” and lead to making wrong ethical choices. The fall of Adam and Eve indicates that human beings are born with Sphinx factor—human factor and animal factor and integrate into the secular life and religious activity with divine factor. Once the animal factor of an individual is out of control, breaking the ethical taboo and violating the moral order or religious rule without exerting the power of human factor or divine factor, there will inevitably be punishments and tragedies. The fall of Adam and Eve is such an ethical tragedy, which purifies primitive desires and evokes moral emotions through pity and fear to uphold the morality in society and the authority in religion.
The hulijing (狐狸精) is a typical stigmatized example of "evil woman" in the history, religion, and culture, which serves as a scapegoat of man under the traditional patriarchy in China. This paper ...aims to explore the image of hulijing and the destigmatization of "evil woman" in the episode "Good Hunting" of TV series Love, Death & Robots (2019) from the perspective of feminism and ethical literary criticism, so as to provide ethical reflections on women"s gender and identity in contemporary society. In the "Good Hunting", the hulijing is presented as a modern Sphinx to destigmatize the "evil woman": (1) being a half-human and half-animal Sphinx, the hulijing Yan, hunted by Taoist priests, is forced into prostitution for survival; (2) being a half-human and half-machine Sphinx, she, transformed by the colonial governor, is forced to be a sex slave, but with the power of modern technology, the hulijing becomes the hunter from the hunted, asserts the sovereignty of her body, and finally realizes both economic and spiritual independence. By setting the story in Hong Kong under colonial rule and depicting such a modern Sphinx, the "Good Hunting" subverts the stereotype of hulijing in traditional myths, breaks the gender and power relation between the man and the woman, and answers the way out of contemporary women. Besides, as a resistance towards racialism and colonialism, the metamorphosis of hulijing's identity and image in the "Good Hunting" reflects the original writer Ken Liu's identity consciousness as a Chinese American and shows his attempts to move from the margin to the center.
This paper explores the religious projection and ethical appeal in the art and literature of Leda and the Swan created from ancient times to the contemporary era, so as to make a comparative review ...and reading on it, providing religious reflection and ethical enlightenment to today’s society. From ancient Greek vase paintings to contemporary English poems, the investigation shows that the story of Leda and the Swan has been continuously rewritten and revalued by history, religion and social ethics. The interaction between Leda and the swan goes from divinity to humanity, increasingly out of the cage of eroticism, symbolizing the process of transforming into a secularized life. Besides, Leda, as a representative victim of traditional patriarchy and religious persecution, goes from bondage to liberation, signaling the awakening of feminine consciousness and the gradual collapse of patriarchy; while the swan, an incarnation of power and desire under patriarchy, becomes an object of condemnation. However, as for who is the victim and who should be condemned, there are different religious and ethical standards in different historical periods, which reflects the development and evolution of religious rules and ethical orders in the historical process. By highlighting the Trojan War or woman’s sufferings, Leda and the Swan, in fact, reveals that the tragedy results from the uncontrollable animal factor and free will, and that women should face their ethical or religious identities to make correct choices.
Ethical literary criticism reads interprets and analyzes literature from an ethical perspective. It argues that literature is a unique expression of ethic and morality within a certain historical ...period, and that literature is not just an art of language but rather an art of text. In light of ethical literary criticism, moral enlightenment and education are literature's primary function, while aesthetic appreciation is merely second to it. Specifically, ethical literary criticism seeks to unpack the ethical features of literary works, to describe characters and their lives from the vantage point of ethics, and to make ethical judgments about them. In the history of human civilization, mankind underwent two important processes: natural selection and ethical selection. Natural selection allowed human beings to evolve from apes physically, whereas ethical selection distinguishes them from animals spiritually. In an ethical sense, mankind is the outcome of the Sphinx factor, which can be seen as the combination of the human and animal factors. The Sphinx factor is the central element expressed in literary works.
This article, from the perspective of ethical literary criticism conceptualized by Nie Zhenzhao, attempts to examine ethical dilemmas, ethical identities, and ethical choices of Ian McEwan's recent ...novel Nutshell. It argues that almost all major characters of the novel are imprisoned either by their existing ethical identities or by their misplaced ethical identities, which restrains them from making proper ethical choices and thus leads to their ethical tragedies. In particular, it tries to decode three ethical metaphors implied by the novel's title "nutshell," namely nutshell of desire, nutshell of poetry, and nutshell of womb.
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