Eileen John (Philosophy, Warwick) will present a talk entitled Emotion and ethical relation in tormenting fiction.

Abstract:

"I will sketch, and pose some questions about, a mini-genre of 'tormenting fiction'. These are works that in various ways seem to trap readers in a miserable consciousness or possibility space, in which the appropriate emotional possibilities seem to shrink to revulsion, paranoia, contempt, despair and corrosively acidic humour. Some accounts of readers' relations to fiction find ethically redemptive potential in the novel, in particular, in its intimate address and extended focus on human experience and relationship. Does that kind of potential lurk in tormenting works? Can a novel be cruel to its readers? I will consider a few examples, taking Dostoevski's Notes from Underground as an influential classic and considering a few more contemporary works (e.g., Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Saramago's Seeing, McCarthy's Remainder), hoping to advance a kind of 'immoralist' reading of at least some of them."