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Axel Honneth
an
immodest
proposal
In his 1991 lecture that has since become famous, Joseph Brodsky,
accepting his nomination as Poet Laureate of the United States, made
Poetry
Anyone who
proposes such
must
have
an
reasons
41-
42
answered in
completely different manner in Brodskys two argufirst, Brodsky describes the moral effect of literature in
connection with human sensitivity: since our expressive vocabulary
multiplies and grows more differentiated in the reading of fiction, our
capacity to feel the pain of the other and to relate to the suffering of
the other is also heightened. According to Brodskys terse formulation,
literature is the only insurance available against the vulgarity of the
human heart (35). As long as it is not penetrated by the metaphorical
power of poetic text, normal language is bound to merely instrumental
ments.
In the
action:
Yet what weve mastered
to
outfox
an
[as adults]
enemy, to sell
certainly not
to pack ones
(34)
While this argument sees the moral effect of literature in its ability,
thanks to its metaphorical riches, to heighten our sensitivity, the second
refers to our cognitive faculties. According to Brodskys lecture, the
reading of fiction increases our perceptive capacity and staves off
ignorance (35); only thus are the cultural presuppositions of a true
democracy established on a broad foundation. But this thesis only gives
rise to a complete argument when it is supplemented with a further
determination, one which is of classical origin and which can elucidate
the sense of what Brodsky means: Literature today presents an indispensable medium, because it offers to us the cognition of the unique
properties of the special case and of the singular form of life in a
way that is indispensable to the democratic associating of citizens with
one another. In other words, Brodsky sees the moral effect of fictional
texts in its heightening of our capacity to perceive differences by virtue
of an aesthetic presentation of the particulars. We may infer that this
heightened capacity benefits the ethical life of democracies, where we
have to learn to deal with individual differences both sensitively and
calmly.
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43
In her
44
concrete duties.
The weakness, not of this moral-theoretical conception but rather
of the aesthetic one presented here, shows itself immediately when we
ask which type of fictional texts in general cohere with such a characterization of literature. This position is bound to those literary presentations that permit a certain measure of disinterested identification
insofar as they allow us to participate in the action-sequence of a story
of emotional reactions and affects. That back and forth movement
45
case,
46
47
Notes
1
2
3
References
Brodsky, Joseph (1991)
An Immodest
November, 31-6.
Lear, Jonathan (1995) The Shrink
is
Proposal,
The New
,
Republic
11
18-25.