The ethics of narrative: A return to the source

Abstract

If there is a single thing that distinguishes literary journalism from other forms of reporting, it is the use of narrative rather than expository prose. This involves the dramatisation of actions that have consequences. In the case of nonfiction storytelling, the consequences are not invented but real; or at least, verifiable. As a result, an engagement with literary journalism often leads to a struggle to reconcile the twin demands of truth and beauty. The long-running debate about how to do so is heavily influenced by Aristotle’s classical texts, The Art of Rhetoric and the Poetics. It is productive to return to those early statements of principle, which provide a blueprint not only for practice in the art of dramatised storytelling, but also for reflection about its ethical dimensions. Because of its specific character, literary journalism therefore puts itself at the heart of a foundational discussion. The tantalising possibility arises that the choice is not between ethics and aesthetics, but ethics therefore aesthetics; and by the same measure, aesthetics therefore ethics.