Care Ethics and Poetry

“An impressive book that through a focus on care invites us to experience poetry in new ways, and through a close reading of poetry, challenges us to imagine new performances of care. I found this a profoundly hopeful and moving account that admits that ‘poetry is not magic’ but it might, just might, be a source of understanding, empathy and moral progress – ultimately for humbly inspiring a more care-filled society.” (James Thompson, Professor of Applied Theatre, University of Manchester)

“A lovely tribute to both poetry and care ethics and how, together, they increase moral sensitivity and joy in our relationships.” (Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Child Education, Emerita, Stanford University)

“Finally, a book that does justice to care by welcoming complexity, context and creativity. This polyvocal book delightfully and meticulously tells us the story about a performative and aesthetic approach to caring and moral progress. Slowly but surely, one becomes part of an intimate tapestry of voices of poets, ethicists and moral philosophers. Hamington and Rosenow not only provide us with new ethical language, they also evoke wonder and a longing for more.” (Merel Visse, Associate Professor of Care Ethics, University of Humanistic Studies, The Netherlands)

Care Ethics and Poetry is the first book to address the relationship between poetry and feminist care ethics. The authors argue that morality, and more specifically, moral progress, is a product of inquiry, imagination, and confronting new experiences. Engaging poetry, therefore, can contribute to the habits necessary for a robust moral life—specifically, caring.  Each chapter offers poems that can provoke considerations of moral relations without explicitly moralizing. The book contributes to valorizing poetry and aesthetic experience as much as it does to reassessing how we think about care ethics.