Interpretation of Milan Kundera’s The Farewell Waltz from the perspective of ethical literary criticism

Abstract

Nie Zhenzhao, a distinguished Chinese scholar, has constructed the theory of literary ethics based on the study of Chinese and Western ethics. Nie’s theory provides a new perspective for literary research. In The Farewell Waltz, there are many kinds of ethical imbalance, such as the distortion of love ethics, the deformity of life ethics, the decline of family ethics and the loss of professional ethics. Taking Nie’s theory of ethical literary criticism as the perspective, we can analyze these phenomena of ethical imbalance in the novel. This is very beneficial for us to explore Kundera’s ethical tendency.