关键词: 艾丽丝•默多克; 《大海啊; 大海》; 伦理选择; 伦理教诲; 文学批评

Abstract: Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea has always been a primary concern for Murdochian scholars in Iris Murdoch studies. Focusing on the storyline and the narrative of The Sea, The Sea, this paper attempts to reread The Sea, The Sea by using theories of ethical literary criticism. From the aspect of the storyline of The Sea, The Sea, starting from London, the novel’s protagonist, Charles’s circular journey to the seaside house Shruff End and his later return to London from which he attempts to escape at the outset in fact symbolizes his difficult progression of ethical construction from sinking in the world to make an ethical selection and then to reconstruct his lost ethical order by actively interfering into everyday life and life of others which he used to escape from. Considering the narrative of The Sea, The Sea, as a fiction narrated and “composed” by Charles, The Sea, The Sea itself is both a product of Charles’s ethical construction and a moral guide for him. For the purpose of becoming a good man, Charles starts to compose his memoir, namely the story of The Sea, The Sea. His record of what he experienced in turn helps him have a better understanding of himself and others, and make a better choice. Therefore, from the perspective of ethical literary criticism, The Sea, The Sea not only reveals Charles’s journey from evil to goodness through ethical selection but also echoes the idea of ethical literary criticism that literary creation originates from ethics and helps to ethical enlightenment.

Keywords: Iris Murdoch; The Sea, The Sea; ethical selection; ethical enlightenment; literary criticism