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Shadows of Ethics: Criticism and the Just Society Geoffrey Galt Harpham. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1999. $49.95.
Shadows of Ethics, Geoffrey Galt Harpham's examination of post-formalist literary theory and the ethical dimensions of these theories is by far the most accessible meta-theoretical work I have ever encountered. That being said, Harpham clearly expects his audience to be highly intelligent, educated, and familiar with both modern thinkers such as Kant, Freud, and Nietzsche, and post-formalist ones such as Derrida. Herpham has done vast amounts of research into both modern and more recent critics (philosophical and psychological as well as literary) and expects his readers to keep up not only with their ideas, but his own, which are dense, complex, and legion. Yet both his explanations of various critical theorists and their concepts, as well as his arguments about their theories, are not only well and intelligently written, but completely comprehensible. And Harpham does not bore his audience either. Despite the weighty subject matter, he finds room for both wit and humor.
In Shadows of Ethics, Harpham ultimately argues that, as a reaction to formalism, post-modern and contemporary thinkers have tried to eliminate ethics from their theories, their discussions, and their analyses. Yet, as Harpham shows, these theorists have unwittingly included ethics even in their attempts to exclude it. These...