Paper boats [Short story]

Paper boats [Short story]

Research background: This work of contemporary realist fiction explores the gap between theoretical models of ethical decision-making based on gender (Gilligan 1982) and based on broader cultural contexts (Ford and Lowery 1986). The work explores the notion that ethical decision-making is multiple, embodied, emotional and inarticulate, as much as, if not more than, it is singular, intellectual and/or theoretical. The story presents a complex overlapping of responses to the problem of who to care for, and how, and demonstrates the messy humanity of characters who embrace, rather than retreat from, personal and relational crises.

Research contribution: This original work of short fiction takes an exploratory and original approach to exploring ethics of care. The narrative explores Ford and Lowery’s (1986) proposal that differences in the moral reasoning applied by individuals are as much a consequence of life situations as gender. The work explores the uniquely complex or hybrid proposition that the ways in which ethics are a product of culture, and cultural difference, as well as gender.

Research significance: The work makes an original contribution by describing and illustrating the relationships between gender, ethics and culture. The work presents complex knowledge about ethical decision-making in the form of a creative, rather than theoretical, narrative. It has been published in a quality peer refereed journal of
creative writing research.

Issue theme: Creative Writing as Research IV. Permanent restricted access to published version in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.