Study Of Literary Ethics

Literature and art are the product of spiritual activities of human beings. Aesthetic invention bestows literature and art are rich inner value, makes them realizing the essential power of human beings, enlarging the free realm of human beings, satisfying and promoting the spiritual pursuit of human beings, and therefore incarnates special moral meaning ontologically.People argue the relationship between morality and literature and art all the time. Those who purely focus on morality advocate absolute obedience of literature and art to moral principles, while aestheticism repels the moral utility. Basic spirit of traditional Chinese culture is based upon patriarchal ethics. As complementary schools, Confucianism, Taoism and Zen encourage moral life, pursue the unity of aesthetics and philanthropy, and lay stress on the educational function of literature and art. Westerners pay great value on theoretical thinking and systematic construction, and have achieved abundant theoretical fruit. Taking materialist dialectics as cornerstone, Marxist ethics of literature and art emphasizes the secondary status of ideologies such as morality, literature and art, opposes "moral determinism" of literature and art, advocates both aesthetic and historical critical standard, especially the summarization of classical Marxist writers on realistic writing law.It is of great instructing importance for us to profoundly understand aesthetic presentation of moral content.Since literature and art reflect politics, economics, culture, etc. of certain society, morality is of course the contents of literature and art. Both the exclusion of aesthetics to ethics, morality and the coldness or violent resistance of ethics, morality to aesthetics will cause the serious absence of aesthetics and critical reduction of social function of literature and art, cancel the distinctive characteristics of literature and art. It is impossible for both writing and acceptance of literature and art not to be influenced and principled by morality, literature and art could not be absolutely self-sufficient.Certain moral ideas, moral affection and moral tendentiousness should present themselves aesthetically through single sensual images. Only in this way, could the moral function of literature and art present themselves completely and distinctively. Through vivid and aesthetic presentation of writer's subjective moral intention, rich objective moral implication will have a realizing elasticity with aesthetic acceptance. Nowadays, together with the strengthening of people's subjectivity, formation of pluralistic social values, and both the cover of theme and estrangement of expression, moral judgments of literature and art will appear more difficult and important.