Ethical Identity And Ethical Selection In Deaf Sentence

Novelist,playwright and literary critic,David Lodge ranks as one of English literature’s most famous and appreciated writers of modern fiction.Lodge is a writer with conscious consciousness and social responsibility.He satirizes and criticizes the social moral crisis in his own unique way,trying to trigger people’s reflection and introspection,and providing people with realistic and deep ethical concern.Therefore,David Lodge’s works at all stages,both early and later,all reflect his concern and reflection on social ethical issues.As one of the representative works in the later period of Lodge’s creation,Deaf Sentence is full of ethical consciousness,and it is of great research value and significance to analyze and explore this novel from the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism.All ethical problems are usually related to the ethical identity.In Deaf Sentence,the protagonist Desmond goes through a process from inadaptation to acceptance of his ethical identity,which is also the beginning of a series of ethical predicaments and ethical selections.The ethical predicament is a connecting link between the preceding and the following.The ethical predicament is put forward to get out of the ethical predicament.The ethical predicament and the ethical selection caused by the transformation of ethical identity in Lodge’s novel is attractive.Based on the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism from Nie Zhenzhao,this thesis researches Deaf Sentence from the three dimensions of Desmond’s ethical identity,ethical predicament and ethical selection.The introduction briefly covers Lodge’s life,works and creation characteristics,and summarizes the domestic and foreign research status of Lodge and Deaf Sentence.The first part of the main body mainly analyzes the protagonist Desmond’s psychological process from resistance to acceptance of the new ethical identity,including three parts.From the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism,deafness is a turning ethical event,which changes Desmond’s ethical identity in both the society and the family.After his deafness,Desmond’s identity crisis is caused by the change of his cognitive approaches from normal to abnormal,which is mainly reflected in his change from relying on voices to focusing on faces in communication.Desmond’s reliance on faces to receive information is consistent with Levinas’ s Other Ethics.What Levinas awakens through the “other” is the ethical conscience of “I” and seeks for an absolute sense of responsibility from human moral nature for the lost moral sense of modern people.Desmond realizes the acceptance of the new ethical identity by the sense of responsibility under the Other Ethics.The second part of the main body analyzes and explores Desmond’s wandering ethical predicament.From following aspects,readers can get a glimpse of Lodge’s sympathy for the life of marginalized people.And the analysis of the protagonist’s entangled psychology in the face of difficulties is helpful to explore the style and exploration direction of David Lodge’s creation in the future.The transformation of ethical identity brings him anxiety and confusion,which leads to the split in his inner world and is reflected in three aspects.The ideal is in conflict with the reality.His ideal retirement is free and fulfilling,but a life without plans and responsibilities leaves him at a loss.Hope alternates with despair.Desmond’s cognition of the deaf is deeply pessimistic and tragic.The development of hearing aids,surgery and lip-reading lessons all give him hope at first,but the feeble results eventually make him hopeless.Third,the battle between life and death tore at his heart.The two extremes are seductive,and he wavers between them like a pendulum.The third part of the main body analyzes Desmond’s ethical selection of getting out of predicament.It reflects Lodge’s perception and reconciliation of life.Desmond makes ethical selections under the influence of the Sphinx factor.Every positive choice of Desmond indicates that he realizes that the only way out of the ethical predicament is to rely on the rational will of human factor to communicate and integrate.Desmond achieves the resolution of anxiety.The important thing is not the cure,but living with the pain.Now that deafness becomes an irreversible consequence,Desmond chooses to use other qualities to counteract anxiety.Desmond’s ethical selection reflects the return of humanistic spirit in Lodge’s creation.After visiting the Auschwitz,Desmond begins to think more positively about life.He is unwilling to waste time in negative emotions and entanglements.Instead,he tries to experience life and find the meaning of life.This reveals that he cherishes and values the passing time.He accepts himself and others with a more inclusive attitude.Through the analysis of Deaf Sentence from the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism,David Lodge’s unique literary value as a writer with a sense of social responsibility can be excavated.Lodge and his father’s experiences of deafness have a great impact on his later literary creation.Deaf Sentence features a college professor as its protagonist,it further expands and deepens themes of the campus literature in lodge’s works.Lodge continues to make a sharp criticism of the decline of the cultural spirit in the college.At the same time,through descriptions of the ethical identity,the ethical predicament and the ethical selection caused by professor Desmond’s retirement and deafness,Lodge guides people to search for the meaning of life with a positive attitude,which reveals the return of humanistic spirit in his works.Lodge puts emphasis on cherishing and seizing of time,giving readers profound enlightenment.