Small and Grandiose Gestures: Reading Care in Anil’s Ghost

This article explores the ways in which “care” features in narratives embedded in times of conflict. It argues that attitudes and gestures of care are present in Ondaatje’s novel, Anil’s Ghost where the ethics of care (or care ethics) “gives voice to the natural caring inclinations of human beings [...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Alonso Breto, Isabel
Tipo de recurso: capítulo de libro
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/226350
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/226350
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-
Literatura canadenca
Ètica de la cura
Canadian literature
Ethics of care
Descripción
Sumario:This article explores the ways in which “care” features in narratives embedded in times of conflict. It argues that attitudes and gestures of care are present in Ondaatje’s novel, Anil’s Ghost where the ethics of care (or care ethics) “gives voice to the natural caring inclinations of human beings […] which exist within the psychological, biological, and practical world of human affairs”, as Daniel Engster has explained. Care is never far from the practical dimensions of life, it cannot be provided or understood as away from materiality. The article posits that in this novel a texture of care is superimposed onto one of destruction and horror, and explores the different forms of care deployed by the main characters, to conclude that the scholarly task of discerning caring moments in such frequently extremely painful narratives, enables a form of transitory redemption from the brutalities which, unfortunately, humans repeatedly show themselves to be capable of.