Ethics, Literature, and Theory: An Introductory Reader brings together the work of contemporary scholars, teachers, and writers into lively discussion on the moral role of literature and the relationship between aesthetics, art, and ethics. Do the rich descriptions and narrative shapings of literature provide a valuable resource for readers, writers, philosophers, and everyday people to imagine and confront the ultimate questions of life? Do the human activities of storytelling and complex moral decision-making have a deep connection? What are the moral responsibilities of the artist, critic, and reader? What can religious perspectives-from Catholic to Protestant to Mormon-contribute to literary criticism? What do we mean when we talk about ethical criticism and how does this differ from the common notion of censorship? Thirty well known contributors reflect on these questions including: literary theorists Marshall Gregory, James Phelan, and Wayne Booth; philosophers Martha Nussbaum, Richard Hart, and Nina Rosenstand; and authors John Updike, Charles Johnson, Flannery O'Connor, and Bernard Malamud. Divided into four sections, with introductory matter and questions for discussion, this accessible anthology represents the most crucial work today exploring the interdisciplinary connections among literature, religion and philosophy.

Part 1 ForewordPart 2 PrefacePart 3 Ethical Criticism and Literary TheoryChapter 4 Premises on Art and MoralityChapter 5 The Moral Connections of Literary TextsChapter 6 Why Ethical Criticism Can Never Be SimpleChapter 7 Ethical Criticism: What It Is and Why It MattersChapter 8 Against Ethical CriticismChapter 9 Who Is Responsible in Ethical Criticism?Chapter 10 The Absence of the Ethical: Literary Theory and Ethical TheoryChapter 11 Evaluative Discourse: A New Turn Towards the EthicalChapter 12 The Moral and the Aesthetical: Literary Study and the Social OrderPart 13 Philosophy Religion, and LiteratureChapter 14 Reading for LifeChapter 15 The "Ancient Quarrel": Literature and Moral PhilosophyChapter 16 Stories and MoralsChapter 17 The Absence of Stories: Filling the Void in EthicsChapter 18 Literature and the Catholic PerspectiveChapter 19 Literature and ProtestantismChapter 20 Something to Measure By: Quaker Values in LiteratureChapter 21 Literary Criticism and Religious ValuesPart 22 Writers' ResponsibilitiesChapter 23 A Writer's DutyChapter 24 The Writer's Moral SenseChapter 25 Imaginative Writing and the Jewish ExperienceChapter 26 The Problem of Evil in FictionChapter 27 Poetry, Politics, and MoralityChapter 28 Art and Ethics?Chapter 29 What Violence in Literature Must Teach UsChapter 30 Ethics and LiteraturePart 31 Readers and Ethical CriticismChapter 32 The Case Against Huck FinnChapter 33 Why We Still Need Huckleberry FinnChapter 34 Huckleberry Finn: An Amazing Troubling BookChapter 35 The Ethical Dimensions of Richard Wright's Native SonChapter 36 Sethe's Choice: Beloved and the Ethics of ReadingChapter 37 Steinbeck, Johnson, and the Master/Slave RelationshipChapter 38 Censorship and the Classroom