Since the 1980s, the American literary criticism community has undergone an "ethical turn," emphasizing the "new ethics" in the art of fiction. This shift abandons traditional moral absolutism, relies on deconstructionism, emphasizes the diversity and uncertainty of the meaning of works, and advocates reading ethics. New ethical criticism places equal importance on both the creative subject and the work, analyzing the author's narrative strategies and intentions, while emphasizing the reader's position and reading methods. In the 21st century, the new ethical criticism continues to develop, and Hale's "Novels and the New Ethics" is his representative work, which explores the relationship between the narrative tradition of contemporary English and American novels and ethical criticism. The book analyzes the influence of the non personalized narrative art of modernist novelists on contemporary writers, as well as the role of "otherworldly novel aesthetics" in the development of contemporary English and American novels. Hale used the term 'otherness ethics' to refer to three types of otherness in the art of fiction: story characters, subordinate otherness, and the work itself. She discusses the heterogeneity of characters and works, emphasizing that modernist novelists construct the story world around characters, shape images from character perspectives and language, and reflect the self-sufficiency of characters and the limitations of the writer's personal will. At the same time, the work is seen as an Other, with inherent contradictions and uncertainty of meaning. Through analyzing the works of James and others, "Novel and New Ethics" elaborates on the influence of modernist formal art on contemporary narrative patterns in novels, as well as the views of New Ethics criticism on reading ethics, providing a new theoretical perspective for ethical criticism of novels.

The 'otherness' of novel characters

Explored the "otherness" of characters in modernist novels and its importance in ethical criticism. The author cites the book "Novels and New Ethics" and points out that contemporary novelists such as Coetzee and Franzen view novels as an ethical mission, using fictional characters to understand themselves and the world. Characters play the role of ethical subjects in the story, while also serving as a way for readers to experience otherness. James' formal art has had an impact on contemporary novelists, who showcase character consciousness through plot structure, perspective selection, and language strategies. In order to maintain the individuality of the characters, novelists choose individuals with different life experiences as protagonists and limit their imagination in their creations to respect the uniqueness of the characters. James' limited perspective and perspective switching provide a solution for contemporary novelists, as shown in Morrison's "Mercy" and Ren Bilian's "The Concubine". However, when discussing the otherness of characters, Hale mainly focuses on the main characters and neglects the secondary characters and their relationships with the main characters. Voloch's viewpoint points out that the marginalization of secondary characters in the story reflects the inherent character system and social structure of the novel, which is also an important aspect of the novel's sexual ethics.

The Call of Works and the Ethics of Reading

Explored the responsibility of writers towards the heterogeneity of others in the criticism of new ethical novels, and how novels can issue a "call" to readers through polyphonic narration. Hale drew inspiration from Bakhtin's theory of "novel discourse" and Levinas' ethics of otherness, emphasizing that readers should have a passive attitude and acceptance when facing works. By analyzing Faulkner's works such as "The Sound and the Fury," the paradoxical significance of the novel perspective and the ethical reading between the author's position and the meaning of the work are revealed. Hale proposed that the ethical significance of novels lies in the imaginative display of others' experiences, requiring readers to read with a lowered self attitude and analyze the writer's posture implied in the form of the work. Through works such as Smith's "On Beauty" and Coetzee's "Elizabeth Costello," the differences in the way readers are summoned by different narrative strategies are demonstrated.

A Comprehensive Perspective on the Criticism of "New Ethics" Novels

In depth exploration of alternative sexual ethics in contemporary British and American novels, and elucidation of the basic stance of new ethical criticism through the book "Novels and New Ethics". Writers should take responsibility for the presentation of their works and characters in their creations, while readers need to respond to the call of their works, discover narrative blind spots, and propose new insights. The new ethical criticism does not have a unified reading method, but emphasizes starting from the formal art of the work, paying attention to the complexity of the work and the diversity of narrative positions, valuing the reading process, and avoiding one-way understanding. The new ethical criticism combines structuralist narrative theory and post structuralist reading theory, reflecting its contradictory stance, emphasizing the uncertainty of the meaning and position of the work, while viewing the work as a subject.