A Literary Utopia:Richard Rorty’s View Of Literary Ethics

Richard Rorty(1931-2007)is an eminent representative of American neo-pragmatism.His transition from a philosopher to literature advocate has attracted the attention in both philosophical and literary circles.Researches concerning Rorty’s thoughts of literature at home and abroad mainly concentrate on certain ideas such as literary culture,imagination and contingency etc.However,there are few systematic studies on Rorty’s neo-pragmatic literary ethics.From the dimensions of the private and public spheres,this thesis will explore how people contribute to constructing an ethical society full of hope in the literary utopia envisaged by Rorty,in which cruelty is avoided and solidarity inspired by imagination and contingency is achieved.There are four chapters in the body of the thesis,which studies how Rorty’s ideal literary utopia is constructed progressively by imagination,contingency and solidarity achieved via literature.Chapter one demonstrates imagination as the approach to construct Rorty’s literary utopia.In the private sphere,Rorty encourages social members to use imagination to extreme to create self.In the public sphere,the imagination cultivated by reading literary works is an important way to arouse people’s empathy with others,and it is the basis for people to set themselves in a position to understand the situation of others.Chapter two explores that contingency as the foothold of the literary utopia.Rorty divides contingency into contingency of language,contingency of selfhood and contingency of liberal society.In the private sphere,contingency of selfhood,which is based on the understanding of contingency of language,is the best way to achieve personal perfection.In the public,contingency of liberal society plays a basic ethical role in promoting human moral sensitivity and social moral progress.Chapter three studies solidarity as the goal of utopian members.Solidarity manifests as “our”inclusiveness to others in the private sphere,pursuit of justice in the public.The enhancement of inclusive consciousness and sense of justice depend on the appreciation of literature.Chapter four probes into the literary utopia as Rorty’s ideal ethical society.Rorty encourages the members to make good use of imagination and admit contingency to achieve social solidarity as “liberal ironists”.In the private sphere,He advocates that people should become ironists who provide hope for the future of the world.In the public sphere,the utopian members as liberalists should strive to reduce the occurrence of cruelty.Based on the above discussion,this thesis draws a conclusion: Based on the division of the public sphere and the private sphere,Rorty advocates that people should read literaryworks,use imagination,recognize contingency,achieve solidarity with the goal of establishing a literary utopia.Rorty’s idealized literary utopia provides a reference for solving modern ethical problems.