Research On Wayne C.Booth’s Ethical Criticism

Wayne C.Booth is a famous American literary critic and rhetorician.Booth’s ethical criticism is not an ethical study of the novel,but a criticism of all literary genres.Booth’s rhetoric is the theoretical basis of ethical criticism,and Booth’s redefining the term “ ethical” is based on his unique understanding of rhetoric and literature.Booth argues that rhetoric involves moral,emotional,political,intellectual value effect and so on.Literature as a special kind of rhetoric also carries all the value.Booth’s ethical criticism based on the literary concept is one kind of value judgment.Booth’s definition of ethical connotations involves the two-phrase interaction between the narrative process and the reader’s reading process.The concept of “a patterning of desire” is a summary of the nature of the interaction between the two processes.the reader not only need to respond to the narrative of the work,but also involuntarily mobilize their own moral,emotional,intellectual and other factors involved in the construction of the value of the work.However a patterning of desire is directed at the plot of the work,which limits the scope of ethical criticism objectively.In the method,ethical criticism cannot meet the structural requirements of some literary types,especially the lyrics.Booth proposed a new type of rhetoric that is exploratory rhetoric.It requires the thinking of others into their own areas of thinking in the argument.“Coduction” as an argument for ethical criticism and the new concept of pluralism behind are the practice of this new rhetoric.With the concept of pluralism,the descriptive method of Booth’ s ethical criticism transcend the dualistic opposition mode of traditional humanism,which embodies the further expansion of traditional humanism.The paper takes the time as a clue to sort out the development of Booth’ ethical criticism,exploring the application of Booth’s rhetoric theory in the ethical criticism and relocating ethical criticism based on the rhetoric.This paper is divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction of this paper,mainly introducing the foreign and domestic research review,the statement of problem and the significance of the researchon Wayne Booth’ ethical criticism.The second part introduces theoretical basis of Wayne Booth’ ethical criticism,rhetoric and ethical view.First of all,this part introduces the effect rhetoric impose on ethical criticism.It includes three aspects: summarizing the theoretical framework of the rhetoric of fiction;comparing pragmatic criticism that relies on classic rhetoric with ethical criticism;introducing Booth’ rhetoric thinking and revealing the foundation rhetoric plays in ethical criticism.Secondly,it reveals the transformation of Booth’ethical connotation,and it is clear that the ethical view of Booth is the analysis and exploration of the comprehensive value effect of literary works including moral,intellectual and emotion.The third part discusses the contribution of the descriptive mode of the ethical criticism in the integration of form and value.Firstly,Booth’ ethical criticism theoretically searched for two aspects: redefining the intention of work,discussing the possibility to reexamine literary value.Secondly,evaluating advantages and disadvantages of ethical criticism as a critical method from the critical practice when it analyses narratives and lyric poetry.The fourth part introduces the empirical feature and the appraisal standard“ coduction” of ethical criticism.Lastly,inquiring into Pluralism in critical practice and the feasibility of Pluralism behind “coduction”.The fifth part summarizes the contribution of ethical criticism and the trend of development in the future.