Beyond certainty

Philosophers, psychologists, and literary scholars have long debated the possible pros and cons of narratives in human affairs but with the recent rise of what has been called “the storytelling boom” questions about the ethics of storytelling have gained acute urgency. This project is fundamentally about the ethical impact stories and storytelling have on the ways we develop both self-knowledge and understanding about others. I follow in the hermeneutic tradition established by scholars like Gadamer and Heidegger who view interpretation as a fundamental component of our engagement with the world. In response to the post-structuralist tradition, this branch of hermeneutics emphasizes experience and experientiality not as something ahistorical and immediately given but as something inextricably intertwined with interpretation. Most notably, Hanna Meretoja stresses the historicity of the interpretive act as something which always takes place at a certain moment and in a specific environment. My approach draws on Meretoja’s narrative hermeneutics ethics which theorizes morality not in an abstract way (as deontology and utilitarianism) but as an interpersonal and dialogical practice. Thus, I view literature as depicting moral agents who make decisions in a specific context from which they engage with other characters and the fictional world at large.