This selection of short stories in world literature by both classical and contemporary writers offers a window to a wide range of ethical questions. The target audience are students in humanities courses in high school or college. The stories are organized by regions and by themes. Each story is linked up with articles in newspapers and magazines that address the theme raised in the short story. A few guiding questions are included to start the discussion.
Why TESS?
What is the point of learning about ethics? An ethics course should teach you how to recognize a moral issue when it stares you in the face. You should learn to appreciate its intricacies, to reason your way through it, and to discuss it with your peers. This will raise your skills of critical reflection and your moral sensitivities. And if you can translate what you gained into action, dare I say it, then it will make you into a better person as well.
Short stories—much more so than the classics or contemporary journals of professional philosophy—are a great tool for this purpose. They do not preach, but they transport the reader to the very core of moral quandaries and invite us to ask pertinent questions. What got the protagonist into this mess? What is he or she to do now? Is there a right way forward? Who, if anyone, is to blame? How does one apportion blame? Are there multiple ways to look at the same issue? Should one be sensitive to cultural differences? What human sentiments and experiences does the story lay bare?
The themes in these short stories are reflected in contemporary moral and social issues. I have connected each short story with recent articles in leading newspapers and magazines discussing these issues. Drawing this connection raises awareness that the political is deeply personal and the personal deeply political.
For Whom?
In collecting these short stories, my target audience has been juniors and seniors in high school and intro college courses. The material lends itself well to these age groups. In this era of blogs and twitter feeds, it’s all good and well to assign War and Peace, but if more than half of the intended audience reaches for Cliff Notes, then what is gained? Short stories stand a chance—especially when they have a good story line and succeed in shaking the readers up a bit. They are worth “liking” and forwarding to e-pals with digital media, no less than some of the newest YouTube clips.
This web site has many uses. It can be useful for any course that wishes to talk about moral and political problems. There is your standard “Ethics” course. But I also have in mind high school courses on character formation and civic education, or college courses on contemporary social issues. Or it can also be an alternative way to teach literature. Some may wish to stick to the short stories and drop the articles. Some may use the articles and drop the short stories. All is perfectly fine to me—there are many roads to walk.
Elder hostels, salons, or groups working with underprivileged populations such as refugees and prisoners may find the site of use in discussing literature or social issues. There is a broad collection of disparate material here and there is a lot to discuss.
Why the Title?
“TESS” is just an acronym. But it is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. If this were a short story and not a novel, it would certainly have been included. Tess says that the stars in the sky are all worlds like ours and compares them to apples on an apple tree--some splendid and sound, some blighted. Our world, she says, is like a blighted apple. It is a world in which ordinary people often find themselves in the most horrendous situations. The short story is the medium par excellence to exemplify this. Kurt Vonnegut wrote in his tips for writing short stories: “Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.” Paradoxically, here is where questions of ethics and the good life abound.
Two Routes
One route into the material is geographical. Click on a continent and you will find a handful of the finest short stories. I placed short stories by migrant writers in their places of origin, the places they write about, as well as in the places where they have written most of their work. The other route is thematic. Click on a theme and you find multiple stories centered around it.
Accessibility and Copyright
I have only put up full-length short stories of older materials. Other stories are made available through links. There are a few short stories that are not on the web. For those stories I have provided references. As to current affairs, I have included links to the newspaper and magazine articles. Some of the stories and articles are placed behind a paywall and the site only permits a limited number of views.
This website is for educational purposes only and I do not stand to gain any monetary profit from it. If you have concerns about copyright, please contact me at LBovens[at]unc[period]edu. I am happy to comply with a takedown notice if there is anything on this website that does not comply with fair use.
Acknowledgments
TESS is currently being supported by the Parr Center for Ethics in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously it has received support from the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and from the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences in the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Art Work
The art work is by Fiorella Lavado.
Join in
No doubt there are gaps. It’s a big world out there and some regions with their own literary giants were no doubt ignored. And it’s a world full of social problems. Many of these social problems have been ignored. But this is a dynamic project and the material on this site is just meant to be a seed. I invite you to contact me and to bring in your own suggestions of short stories addressing moral problems. Together we can make it grow.
We read, as C.S. Lewis said, to know that we are not alone.
Related Projects
The website “After Dinner Conversation” contains short stories that were specifically written by its authors to stimulate philosophical discussion.
Eric Schwitzgebel maintains a website with a list of philosophical science fiction literature.