Ethical Responsibility In Jonathan Franzen’s Fiction

Jonathan Franzen(1959-),a contemporary American writer,is best known for his novel The Corrections,which won the National Book Award in 2001.Writing in the critical tradition of social novel,Franzen pays attention to real-life problems and shows clear ethical concerns.Current studies,which approach his work from such perspectives as eco-criticism,globalization studies,financial capital and ethical criticism,have made significant contribution in their own ways.Based on these studies,this dissertation locates Franzen’s five novels within historical context and provides a thorough investigation into the theme of ethical responsibility.During the Neoliberal era,American economy moved to a free-market mode by further reducing government control.This transition,while stimulating economic growth,produced negative impacts on morality evidenced by a series of business scandals and aroused public concern over ethical issues.Against this backdrop,ethical responsibility in Franzen’s work takes on a special significance.This dissertation approaches Jonathan Franzen’s fiction by combining ethical criticism with Frederic Jameson’s theory of ideology.According to Jameson,a literary text is a symbolic act,in which the writer tries to invent a formal "solution" to the otherwise unresolvable social contradictions.This function can be best observed in the so-called "ideologemes" in the text,i.e.,the smallest conceptual units of belief systems which are ethical in nature.Jameson’s view serves as a useful supplement to ethical criticism and provides a theorectical foothold for interpreting Franzen’s fiction.In his major works,Frenzen expresses his ethical views by focusing on the theme of individual responsibility.His reflections undergo a process of development,which begins with corporate managers’ social responsibility,then extends to include the individual’s self-responsibility,and finally rests on the individual’s responsibility for the family.At the very beginning of his literary career Franzen attributed business scandals to market liberalization.That explains why he takes the Protestant ethic as a"counter-discourse" and criticizes Milton Friedman’s view that corporate managers’s social responsibility is none other than increasing the profit.Later he turns to the individual responsibility of ordinary citizens since he saw these people as most likely affected by the economic liberalization.Meanwhile,he pays attention to family,the smallest unit of social organization,and uses the relationship between family members as a metaphor for social order,so as to provide an artistic solution to the otherwise unresolvable social contradictions.The present dissertation consists of three chapters.Chapter One focuses on how Franzen responds to real-life business scandals by highlighting corporate managers’social responsibility.Franzen attributes problems such as financial speculation and environmental destruction to market liberalization and hopes to draw the public’s attention to these problems with his writing.The narrative strategy he adopts is to set up a conflict between the Protestant ethic and free market mentality,which he assigns respectively to protagonists and antagonists.By this means he transforms free market mentality,originally part of the mainstream ideology,into a "problem",a target of criticism.Based on such transcoding,he tries to explore the social responsibility of corporate managers.Focusing on severe environmental destruction,he stresses the necessity of corporate environmental responsibility and criticizes those parties concerned for their irresponsibility.He also contrasts between two styles of business management guided by the Protestant ethic and free market mentality respectively.Warning against the predatory nature of financial capital,he emphasizes the necessity of corporate managers taking responsibility for local community.Chapter Two examines Frazen’s reflections on the individual’s self-responsibility.In response to the primacy of individual freedom preached by free market theorists,he suggests the necessity of one’s self-restraint and manifests his attitude through character portrayal.Drawing from the genre of picaresque novel,he sets some of his male characters in mobility and asks them to choose among different ways of life,which represent the Protestant ethic and free market mentality respectively.Based on such transcoding,he responds to free market mentality in two ways.To begin with,he uses symbols,especially metaphors like "purity/dirt",to describe the ethical choices of these characters.In addition,he integrates the Protestant ethic and free market mentality into the relationship between father and son.By telling the stories of three pairs of contrasting fathers and sons,he manages to show the conflicts and reconciliation between the two belief systems behind them.Through the choices of these characters,especially the transformation of the younger generation,Franzen reveals his views about individual responsibility,which suggest that one should inherit the Protestant ethic consciously and learn to pracitce self-restraint in the free market.Chapter Three discusses Franzen’s views about the individual’s responsibility for family.Serveing as a link between the society and the individual,family narrative in Franzen’s fiction performs a special symbolic function.He transforms the Protestant ethic and free market mentlaity into the conflicts between family members,so as to represent the ethical crisis on the social level.Based on such transcoding,Franzen deals with free market mentality in two ways.Borrowing from the plot pattern of melodrama,he settles the family conflicts at the end of each novel,which is how he manages to "resolve" social contradictions on a symbolic level.Meanwhile,he takes pains to portray several female characters who manage to reach a compromise between the Protestant ethic and free market mentality.This compromise,which helps them to play a key part in solving the family conflicts,is a clear sign of Franzen’s further understanding of individual responsibility.He indicates that individual responsibility means more than self-restriction,since it involves caring,forgiving,as well as willingness to ease tension and reduce conflicts.Franzen’s work as a whole contributes to the continuation and development of the genre of social novel.He establishes a distinctive style by combining realistic means of character portrayal with postmodern narrative skills.Meanwhile,he shows the negative impact of market liberalization and suggests the importance of business ethics and individual responsibility.With these efforts,he manages to draw the public’s attention to the general effects of neoliberal policies.