Commentary: Narrative inquiry as a means of moral enquiry in higher education

Narratology has long been a formal, major strand of literary studies, and narrative theory has more recently entered the fields of social science, psychology and theology. In all these fields, analysis of narrative reveals valuable insights into the structure and meaning of story-making, and narrative is now a widely used therapeutic tool. This paper revisits an original source of narrative inquiry, literary texts, to show how they can be used in higher education as a significant means of ethical and moral thinking. More than any prescriptive moral code or set of professional ethics, these texts have the capacity to enlarge our sensibility, sharpen, yet soften, our judgements, and make an immense contribution to human flourishing.