“Nonsensical” Caring in Ali Smith’s Fiction and Its Kierkegaardian Defence

• Authors: Joanna Klara Teske

Title variants

PL

“Nonsensowna” troska w twórczości Ali Amith i jej kierkegaardiańska obrona

Abstracts

PL

Artykuł rozważa możliwe sensy “nonsensownej” troski - troski, która z różnych powodów nie może, jak się zdaje, pomóc temu, do kogo jest skierowana, a w którą ten, kto się troszczy, angażuje się w pełni, mimo przekonania o jej nieskuteczności. Inspiracją dla projektu jest twórczość Ali Smith, która zawiera liczne, przemawiające do wyobraźni i zapadające w pamięć, przykłady takiej troski: zmartwiona, że jej zmarła siostra odczuwa brak życiowych wrażeń, Clare w Hotel World [Hotel Świat] zabiega usilnie o to, by jej wrażenia były możliwie intensywne, choć wie, że jej siostra - będąc martwą - nie skorzysta z nich; w Summer [Lato] Hannah i Daniel piszą do siebie czułe listy, które palą natychmiast po ich napisaniu ze względów bezpieczeństwa, tak że adresat nie ma najmniejszej szansy na ich przeczytanie; w “Virtual” obłożnie chora dziewczyna opiekuje się wirtualnym „zwierzątkiem”, choć zdaje sobie sprawę, że nie jest żywe, nic więc nie odczuwa. Przykłady Smith są niezwykle sugestywne, jednak w prawdziwym życiu tego typu troska - przewidywalnie nieskuteczna (tj. niezdolna pomóc potrzebującemu) i zarazem kosztowna - jest rzadka. Czemu? Przy jakich metafizycznych założeniach (jeśli są takie) “nonsensowna” troska mogłaby mieć sens? Artykuł rozważa te pytania, przyjmując obszerną analizę miłości agape, jaką w Czynach miłości (1847) przedstawia Søren Kierkegaard, za podstawowy punkt odniesienia.

EN

The present paper considers the possible sense of “nonsensical” caring-caring (1) which for various reasons apparently cannot help the cared-for, and (2) in which the carer, though convinced that it will not be effective, whole-heartedly engages. The project is inspired by the fiction of Ali Smith, which offers varied, vivid and memorable examples of such caring: worried that her dead sister misses life experience, Clare in Hotel World makes sure her sensations are doubly intense and rich though she knows her sister, being dead, will not benefit from them; in Summer Hannah and Daniel write to each other tender letters which they immediately burn for safety’s sake so that the addressee has not even the slightest chance of ever reading them; in “Virtual” a bed-ridden girl diligently takes care of her virtual pet, well aware that it is not alive, let alone sentient. Smith’s examples of “nonsensical” caring are strangely compelling, yet in real life such caring-predictably ineffective (as regards helping the other) and costly-is rare. Why? Under what metaphysical assumptions, if any, could “nonsensical” caring make sense? The paper considers these questions, taking Søren Kierkegaard’s extensive discussion of agape love in Works of Love (1847) as its primary point of reference.

Keywords

EN

nonsensical caring; ineffective care; metaphysical assumptions; Søren Kierkegaard; Works of Love; Ali Smith

PL

nonsensowna troska; nieskuteczna troska; metafizyczne założenia; Søren Kierkegaard; Works of Love; Ali Smith

• Publisher: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL
• Journal: Roczniki Filozoficzne
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 261-288

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Joanna Klara Teske

• John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

• https://orcid.org/000000023651595X

References

• Bovens, Luc. 2019. “What Is This Thing Called Love?” In The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy, edited by Adrienne M. Martin, 264–74. New York: Routledge.
• Compaijen, Rob. 2014. “Do I Ever Have a Place in the Sun? A Critical Perspective on Kierkegaard’s Works of Love.” International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 75 (4): 347–64.
• Cottingham, John. 2012. “Meaningful Life.” In The Wisdom of the Christian Faith, edited by Paul K. Moser and Michael T. McFall, 175–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Donne, John. (1624) 1973. “Meditation XVII.” In The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, edited by Frank Kermode and John Hollander, 1:1056–57. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Dutton, Denis. 2009. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Eagleton, Terry. 2008. The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Evans, C. Stephen. (1998) 2006. “A Kierkegaardian View of the Foundations of Morality.” In Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self: Collected Essays, 225–37. Waco: Baylor University Press.
• Evans, C. Stephen. 2004. Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love: Divine Command and Moral Obligations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Fehr, Beverley. 2006. “A Prototype Approach to Studying Love.” In The New Psychology of Love, edited by Robert J. Sternberg and Karin Weis, 225–46. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Ferreira, M. Jamie. 2001. Love’s Grateful Striving: A Commentary on Kierkegaard’s Works of Love. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ferreira, M. Jamie. 2008a. Kierkegaard. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Ferreira, M. Jamie. 2008b. “The Problematic Agapeistic Ideal-Again.” In Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard, edited by Edward E. Mooney, 93–110. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Furtak, Rick Anthony. 2013. “Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love.” Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 18 (1): 217–41.
• Greenberg, Yudit K., ed. 2008. Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
• Hall, Amy Laura. 2002. Kierkegaard and the Treachery of Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Henry, O. (1905) 2017. The Gift of the Magi. Scotts Valley: CreateSpace.
• Kierkegaard, Søren. (1847) 1998. Works of Love. Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Kraay, Klaas J. 2018. “Invitation to the Axiology of Theism.” In Does God Matter? Essays on the Axiological Consequences of Theism, edited by Klaas Kraay, 1–35. New York: Routledge.
• Krishek, Sharon. 2009. Kierkegaard on Faith and Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Krishek, Sharon. 2017. “Love as the End of Human Existence.” In Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life, edited by Stephen Minister, J. Aaron Simmens, and Michael Strawser, 3–15. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Landau, Iddo. 2017. Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Lindström, Valter. 1952. “A Contribution to the Interpretation of Kierkegaard’s Book The Works of Love.” Studia Theologica − Nordic Journal of Theology 6 (1): 1–29.
• Marcar, G. P. 2018. “The Divine Relationship Ethics of Kierkegaard’s Love-Sleuth in Works of Love.” Studies in Christian Ethics 32 (3): 341–51.
• McClure, John A. 2007. Partial Faiths: Postsecular Fiction in the Age of Pynchon and Morrison. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
• Oppy, Graham. 2021a. “Commentary on ‘The Axiology of Theism: Expanding the Contrast Classes.’” In Four Views on the Axiology of Theism: What Difference Does God Make?, edited by Kirk Lougheed, 87–90. London: Bloomsbury.
• Oppy, Graham. 2021b. “Naturalistic axiology.” In Four Views on the Axiology of Theism: What Difference Does God Make?, edited by Kirk Lougheed, 137–71. London: Bloomsbury.
• Papineau, David. 2007. “Naturalism.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://plato. stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/naturalism.
• Smith, Ali. (1997) 2006. Like. London: Virago.
• Smith, Ali. (1999) 2004. “The Hanging Girl.” In Other Stories and Other Stories, 13–35. London: Penguin.
• Smith, Ali. (1999) 2004. “Virtual.” In Other Stories and Other Stories, 77–89. Penguin: London.
• Smith, Ali. (2001) 2002. Hotel World. New York: Anchor Books.
• Smith, Ali. (2003) 2004. “The Heat of the Story.” In The Whole Story and Other Stories, 155–66. New York: Anchor Books.
• Smith, Ali. (2014) 2015. How to Be Both. New York: Anchor Books.
• Smith, Ali. (2020) 2021. Summer. London: Penguin.
• Smith, Ali. 2012. “The Manchester Sermon 2012: Rebegot.” Manchester Literature Festival (October 18).
• Taylor, Sunaura. 2017. Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation. New York: The New Press.
• Tietjen, Mark. 2017. “Kierkegaard, Weil, and Agapic Moral Fideism.” In Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life, edited by Stephen Minister, J. Aaron Simmens, and Michael Strawser, 78–91. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Wolf, Susan. 2010. Meaning in Life and Why It Matters. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.18290/rf237102.14

Biblioteka Nauki

31232783