Shaped by Stories: The Ethical Power of Narratives

Contents

Contents Y Acknowledgments   ix Preface   xiii Chap ter One Reading for Life 1 Chap ter T wo What Is Ethical Agency, Why Should You Care, and What Do Stories Have to Do with Your Ethical Agency? 19 Chap ter Three For Good or Ill: Stories as Ethical Education 31 Chap ter Four Stories and the Ethics of Experience 49 Chap ter Five Judgment that Bites, Assent that Risks 63 Chap ter Six Story as Companionship 81 Chap ter Seven Ethics of Narrative in a Practical Vein: Ethical Invitations in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Grave” 97 Chap ter Eight Ethics of Narrative in a Practical Vein Once More: Invitations to Misogyny in James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat” 121 Chap ter Nine Ethical Engagements Over Time: Reading and Rereading David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights 143 Chap ter Ten Postscript: Toward an Ethical Theory 167 Notes   197 Works Cited   207 Index   215 viii Contents ...