A Study Of The Sense Of An Ending From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Julian Barnes is regarded as one of the most distinguished novelists in modern Britain.He won the Man Booker Prize because of The Sense of an Ending in 2011,and in the same year this work also won him the David Cohen Prize.The novel narrated by Tony,the protagonist,mainly talks about his life experiences,some events and people around him,especially Adrian and some of his experiences.This thesis uses the ethical literary criticism to evaluate The Sense of an Ending on the basis of close reading from the relationship between human and society,the relationship between human and human,and the relationship between human and self.In foreign countries,The Sense of an Ending enjoys great popularity and the academic literature circle at home also pays close attention to this novel.However,most critics on this novel focus on time and memory,post-modern elements,historical authenticity and narrative strategy.Rare researches touch upon this novel from the viewpoint of ethical literary criticism.By utilizing theoretical framework of ethical literary criticism,the thesis elaborates the novel from three layers of relationships,namely,the human-society relationship,the human-human relationship and the human-self relationship.According to the interpretation of the three layers of relationships,the thesis delves into the ethical situation in The Sense of an Ending,hoping to reveal the ethical ideas of Julian Barnes,so as to better show Barnes’ humanistic spirit and his devotion of humanistic construction.