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Notes on Hybrid Novels and Ethical Discourse
- MLN
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 128, Number 1, January 2013 (Italian Issue)
- pp. 185-205
- 10.1353/mln.2013.0007
- Article
- Additional Information
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The article investigates contemporary European novels that challenge the borders between fiction and nonfiction. Analyzing, among others, works by Antonio Franchini, Javer Cercas and Jonathan Littell, I seek to demonstrate that today’s use of a hybrid genre serves authors as a narrative device to prove the factual truth of their narrations, therefore assuring their social relevance, without losing the capacity to convey a archetypical, meaning of human history. From this perspective I analyze the connections between literature and ethics, suggesting a theory of recognition between the reader and the character and examining in particular the problematic case of the reader’s identification with a morally flawed character.