A study on Revisiting the moral perspective on studying fiction

The moral perspective has always been an important part of the literary worldview. It was adopted in Western literary criticism from Plato's virtue-based conception of life and Aristotle's 'high intention,' and it found support from authors such as Matthew Arnold and D. H. Lawrence, who believed that poetry that ignored moral ideas ignored life itself, and from prominent critics such as F.R. Leavis, who argued for literature's moral power. The works of Nobel Laureate and postmodern author Gabriel Marquez show that the moral imperative has not been entirely eclipsed, even though magic and imagination are the focus of most readers' attention in his works. Nora Hamalainen's Literature and Moral Theory (2015) is an excellent academic resource for this topic, as it demonstrates both the continued relevance of the moral perspective it promotes and the necessity of literature in the modern world. Within the context of this paper, "literature" refers to a wide variety of fictional works such as novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Focusing on human values and how they influence the work of creative authors is at the heart of the moral approach. It is thought that by taking a moral stance when analysing literature, we might gain insight into the works themselves and also find solutions to the societal rifts that have contributed to the so-called "crisis in values" of today. Unfortunately, the confusion has been exacerbated by fashionable, unstable literary theories, in particular postmodernism, which was supposed to inject new life into the study of literature but instead ended up confusing readers with its flowery language, disregard for human "virtues," and disregard for any stable view of truth. Therefore, the 'end of theory' has been declared. Because of this, the recommendation to reevaluate the moral approach to appraising literature is a return to the fundamental premise or basis of creative thought. The reason of the current crisis, and the means by which truth and fundamental values might be reasserted in the face of a vacuum of leadership and the resulting moral anarchy, may be found in the progressive decline of the moral approach.