From Self to Character: Narration, Acknowledgment and Theatricality
Open Access
- Author:
- Goff, Alastair Peter
- Graduate Program:
- Philosophy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 29, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Emily Rolfe Grosholz, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Brady Lee Bowman, Committee Member
John Philip Christman, Committee Member
Patrick G Cheney, Committee Member
Emily Rolfe Grosholz, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- self
character
narration
acknowledgment
theatricality
literature
autobiography
Shakespeare - Abstract:
- This is a dissertation on the relation between narrative and selfhood. I begin by defining a philosophical tradition out of which the narrative conception of self emerges. This tradition of thinking is characterized by the unity and coherency of the self. I then go on to define the narrative conception of the self. However, I object to the narrative conception of the self on the grounds that it is unable to fix on what the content of our self-narrative should be. I introduce a concept that has so far been left out of discussions of narrative and selfhood, Stanley Cavell’s concept of acknowledgment. I argue that selfhood requires that we acknowledge who we are. One of the ways in which we can acknowledge who we are, as I illustrate through the use of the example of Hal from Shakespeare’s Henriad, is through theatricalizing ourselves. This involves being beheld by an audience and turning ourselves into a character. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I argue that we can theatricalize ourselves and acknowledge ourselves through writing a literary narrative based on our lives. In a literary narrative we create a character out of ourselves and present ourselves to an audience. Therefore, I argue, the role narrative plays in selfhood is not to define who we are but to serve as a means of acknowledging ourselves, which is requisite for selfhood.