Experiencing Ethics with Sterne and Musil : : A relentless character construction / / Jorge Estrada.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2020
• VerfasserIn: Estrada, Jorge,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2019]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: spectrum Literaturwissenschaft / spectrum Literature : Komparatistische Studien / Comparative Studies , 67
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 334 p.)

Experiencing ethics not only refers to being confronted with a situation in which one must choose a course of action; it also makes reference to giving a narrative account of the circumstances and chain of events leading to such crossroads. Between both there is a chasm, a space of indeterminacy into which R. Musil and L. Sterne delve with aesthetic means. Their poetics move in opposite directions, but by following them to their last critical consequences this study reveals a kindred ethical stance.This interpretation sheds light on the ethics revolving around character construction by examining the constraints thwarting any attempt to complete a biographical account or convey a protagonist that led his or her life. Neither Musil nor Sterne posit a narrative agenda that could reach a last chapter or lead to a groundwork determining their ethics. A closer look into their tight-knit prose reveals that both rely on the narrating, on a skill that must be incessantly cultivated through a digressive or essayistic style.Equipped with a vast theoretical repertoire, this approach makes a strong case for a new constellation in comparative literature.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Preface: user manual for puzzles missing pieces -- 1. Rational Irrationality -- 2. The Multifarious Life of the Mind -- 3. Character Construction as Relational Difference -- Bibliography -- Index