It is a striking and perhaps unappreciated fact of modern literature that much very direct moral talk—talk about moral dilemmas, talk about how to behave in ethically challenging situations, talk about serious ethical compromises and lapses—gets presented to us through gangster fiction—not just crime fiction, but fiction about organized crime. Why should this genre, in particular, be so fruitful for the dramatic staging of ethical challenges? What can we learn about our evolved moral psychologies—and especially about the sorts of stresses they are put under in the modern world—from mafia fiction? This talk will offer a brief tour of recent work in Darwinian moral psychology by looking at a few classics from The Godfather to The Sopranos.
Information about Blakey Vermeule can be found here.
