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Narcissism as ethical practice?: Foucault, askesis and an ethics of becoming

Lookup NU author(s): Emerita Professor Elaine Campbell

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Sage Publications Ltd., 2010.

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Abstract

An auto/biographical society brings with it fears of a drift towards a culture of narcissism in which the mutuality and ethicality of collective life may be eclipsed in favour of a self-indulgent ‘aesthetics of existence’. This article focuses on auto/biographical practice, regarding it as a quintessential ‘technology of the self ’ in the Foucauldian sense. Paradoxically, this positions auto/biography within a thesis which emphasizes the constitution of the self as a project of aesthetic inscription, posing dangers for ethicality and commitment to public life. Is an aesthetic disposition ethically indispensable? The paper explores this problematic through the lens of Foucauldian ethics. A critical (re-)examination of the aesthetics of reading and writing auto/biography suggests the potential for realizing a different kind of ethical relation to ourselves and others. These issues are explicated by reference to the popular cultural text, Dead Man Walking – an auto/biographical narrative which is explicitly ‘aestheticized’ as entertainment.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Campbell E

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Cultural Sociology

Year: 2010

Volume: 4

Issue: 1

Pages: 23-44

Print publication date: 01/01/2010

Date deposited: 05/12/2011

ISSN (print): 1749-9755

ISSN (electronic): 1749-9763

Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1749975509356752

DOI: 10.1177/1749975509356752

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