Fictions and Morals: Fiction and Its Discontents

We established last episode that fiction does seem to have a moral function, along with most other discourses. But what should that moral function be?

In this second episode in a series about the moral function of fiction: the opinions of, like, a bunch of white dudes and an actually good one by Susan Sontag.

References:

- John Gardner, Moral Fiction (1978)

- Aristotle, Poetics

- Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem (2007)

- Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (2008)

- Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poesy (1595)

- Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 4 (1750)

- Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869)

- Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction (1991)

- Peter Lamarque, The Philosophy of Literature (2009)

- Henry James, The Art of Fiction (1884)

- #MAGA, “Donald Trump on ISIS - ‘I'm gonna bomb the SHIT out of 'em!’” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OES7kbWZ70Y

- Mary Gordon, “Moral Fiction,” The Atlantic, 2005

- Susan Sontag, “At the Same Time: The Novelist and Moral Reasoning,” At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches (2004)

Music:

- grapes, “I Dunno (Grapes of Wrath Mix), CC BY, http://ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/56346

- Kevin Macleod, “J. S. Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze - BWV 208,” CC BY, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Sheep_May_Safely_Graze_-_BWV_208

- Visager, “We Can Do It!” CC BY, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_09_We_Can_Do_It