NEMLA 2012, 43rd annual convention
March 15-18th 2012, Rochester, New York
Sympathy and Justice in French Literature
In his essay On the Basis of Morality, Arthur Schopenhauer argues that the real basis of all voluntary justice lies in sympathy alone that is stirred by the sight of another's pain. Unlike Adam Smith or David Hume who define sympathy as a fellow-feeling, Schopenhauer focuses on pain and suffering. As such, to him, pain is positive since, through the mechanism of sympathy, it suppresses egoism by alleviating the difference between self and other, and triggers in all party involved a chain of morally worthy actions to overcome it.
Indeed, etymologically, both sympathy and compassion find at their core the idea of suffering: sym and cum–meaning together–referring to the idea of sharing, and pathos and passion referring to pain. But how does the sharing of pain lead to justice? Literature offers some insights into this question. In La chanson de Roland, pain-stricken by his nephew's death, Charlemagne faints, and so do his knights, only to come back to the battlefield and to gain justice by avenging Roland. On the other hand, in Camus' L'étranger, Meursault, who does not feel any pain at his mother's funeral, seeks in vain sympathy from the jury. At his failure to do so, he foresees that justice will not take his side and that he is doomed to a sinister end.
This panel proposes to examine, through these examples and many more in French literature, the relationship between sympathy and justice through the representations of pain, its causes and effects, and its moral consequences.
Abstracts should be addressed to Philippa Kim (philippa.kim@gmail.com) by September 30, 2011.