Etiske lesninger i fiksjonens frirom

Resumé

Ethical Readings in the Unbiassed Sphere of Fiction:

This article defends an ethical criticism of fiction film. Drawing on the so-called »ethical turn« in philosophy and literary criticism, as well as perspectives from new tendencies in cognitive film theory, Gjelsvik argues that an ethical criticism is not just possible, but unavoidable.

Using contemporary American fiction film and the depiction of violence as her main case-study, she aims to show that there is no such thing as a separate fictional realm beyond the scope of ethical evaluations. A central example in her discussion is Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, a movie which was regarded by the Norwegian film reviewers as a fairy-tale and »just for fun«; accordingly the movie’s depiction of violence was not subject to an ethical criticism. Gjelsvik points to several reasons why this position (close to »aestheticism« in art theory) is inadequate, and she proposes a moderate version of ethical criticism instead. She discusses the moderate position as formulated by Berys Gaut and Noël Carroll, both philosophers who also have worked extensively on film art, trying to transfer their perspectives on art onto popular culture.

She argues that such an approach also needs to take into consideration the emotions evoked by the movie and by violent depictions in particular. Whereas cognitive film theorists have foregrounded the similarities between the viewers’ emotional response to film and their real-life emotions, Gjelsvik makes a case for the importance of considering the distinctive features of fiction and cinematic depictions.

The overall argument is that, as the relation between moral and aesthetic values is complex, ethical criticism should not aim for categorical evaluation. On the contrary, the position should take into consideration the heterogeneousness of fiction film, for instance in the differences between different movies’ depiction of violence, and acknowledge the value of ambivalent reactions towards fiction as well.