Ethical Choice And Reflection-a Study Of The Sense Of An Ending From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

The Sense of an Ending is one of the English writer Julian Barnes’ masterpieces.It has been widely acclaimed by critics since it was published,and won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 for him.Up to now,most commentators mainly review and analyze the work from the perspectives of history,memory and narrative.However,they ignore the fact that Barnes also focuses on analyzing the characters’ inner world and providing ethical revelation to readers from philosophy.The ethical literary criticism exactly offers a critical platform due to the ethical combination with psychology and psychoanalysis.So far,the researches about ethical value of this novel from the perspective of "ethical literary criticism" in academic circles are still rare and limited.Therefore,it is particularly necessary to analyze this novel from this perspective.This thesis tries to analyze this novel systematically from the ethical choice and ethical reflection.On the one hand,it explains the different life phenomena in the literary text from the perspective of ethics,explores the ethical choices of different paradigms,and analyzes the different motives behind ethical choices.On the other hand,it makes ethical reflection on this novel,dissects the moral revelation the ethical choices give us.The thesis finds Barnes’ ethical thoughts,conveying an ethical attitude to the public that it is important to make the right ethical choices in ethical dilemmas and to make ethical reflections positively.Meanwhile,it is hoped that this way of interpreting can help to contribute more to the study of Barnes’ works.