scholarly journals SELF-WRITING IN THE DIMENSION OF EVERYDAY LIFE: DYNAMICS, CHALLENGES, PERSPECTIVES

2021 ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Yuliia Pavlenko
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Xviii Century ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Text Writing

The article presents a study of the everyday life discourse in writing about the Self of a fictional subject. It seems obvious that involvement of self-writing in everyday practice calls into question the power of self-writing in the context of everyday life for the self-knowledge of the individual. The purpose of this scientific research is to debunk this illusion and explain the connection between the everyday life and self-writing. It transforms the practice of incorporating one’s own «I» in writing into the dimension of constructing the subject’s identity. There are no works on this topic in modern literary criticism and this fact also indicates the relevance and novelty of the research that is unfolding in the following article. Nowadays, the history of everyday life is booming. It is evidenced by a whole array of scientific papers on this issue. The study of self-writing in the dimension of everyday life appeals to the semiotic approach of Y.M. Lotman and G. Knabe for the analysis of the sign-symbolic nature of everyday life, to the sociological studies of A. Schutz, P. Berger and T. Lukman to identify the ways of constructing everyday life as reality or as a «life world», to the works of V.D.Leleko in the field of aesthetics and culturology of everyday life. The works of the philosophical and anthropological school serve the basis for the research. Particular attention is given to the text-letter of the Enlightenment. The protagonists of the Enlightenment Age invest the issues of everyday life in the work of writing that is a daily practice in the XVIII century. Due to its characteristics, the sphere of everyday life is a measure of self-knowledge and self-affirmation of the individual that was first artistically embodied by enlightened characters. The study shows that everyday life asa strong ground for self-affirmation of the subject was discovered with the help of the personal writing in the novel of the XVIII century, but this discovery became a lost testament to the text-writing of the Enlightenment. Changing the picture of everyday life under the influence of new technologies does not interfere with the text-writing. In the dynamic picture of everyday life offered to us by the 21st century, writing about the Self of a fictional subject opens up new facets of the power of everyday life discourse for the anthropological laboratory of literature. The study is illustrated by thesuch texts as: «Robinson Crusoe» by D.Defoe, «Nun» by D. Diderot, «Memoirs of two young wives» by O. de Balzac, «Poison of Love» by E.-E. Schmitt, «Self-portrait of the radiator» by K. Boben.

scholarly journals From an ethnography of the everyday to writing echoes of suffering

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rechtman
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Racial Group ◽  
Collective Modes ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
The Individual

Veena Das has introduced a major shift in our contemporary conception of ethnography. While she brings forward a new way of looking at everyday life, which is already a major achievement, she also offers a conceptual resolution to a classical unresolved opposition between the individual and the collective, and between idiosyncratic psychology (subjectivity) and collective modes of thinking, through a challenging debate on what makes one a member of a group and yet radically distinct from all others. The ethnography in her book Affliction stands on three major pillars: The first is the ethnographer’s subjective position in the field regarding the issues of lives, testimony, and research. The second is the neighborhood as the site of fieldwork, with all of its heterogeneity, rather than the group, such as an ethnic or racial group or one cohering around another criterion of belonging. The third and final pillar is the focus on the ordinary through ethnography of the everyday. I then illustrate Veena Das’s perspective on subjectivity with my own fieldwork with survivors of the Cambodian genocide.

Part I

Good Lives ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 3-124
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Self Knowledge

Part I investigates a wide range of autobiographies, alongside work on the history and literary criticism of autobiography, on narrative, and on the philosophies of the self and of the good life. It works from the point of view of the autobiographer, and considers what she does, what she aims at, and how she achieves her effects, to answer three questions: what is an autobiography? How can we learn about ourselves from reading one? About what subjects does autobiography teach? This part of the book develops, first, an account of autobiography as paradigmatically a narrative artefact in a genre defined by its form: particular diachronic compositional self-reflection. Second, an account of narrative as paradigmatically a generic telling of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents. It defends rationalism about autobiography: autobiography is in itself a distinctive and valuable form of ethical reasoning, and not merely involved in reasoning of other, more familiar kinds. It distinguishes two purposes of autobiography, self-investigation and self-presentation. It identifies five kinds of self-knowledge at which autobiographical self-investigation typically aims—explanation, justification, self-enjoyment, selfhood, and good life—and argues that meaning is not a distinct sixth kind. It then focusses on the book’s two main concerns, selfhood and good life: it sets out the wide range of existing accounts, taxonomies, and tasks for each, and gives an initial characterisation of the self-realization account of the self and its good which is defended in Part II.

Who Do You Think You Are?

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-57
Author(s):  
Nicolas Bommarito
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
What Works ◽  
Special Challenge ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Tools And Methods

This chapter explores self-knowledge, which is critical for solving the practical problems involved in getting through life. An awareness of your own quirks, character, and preferences is important for figuring out what works for you. However, self-knowledge is also tricky because it is especially elusive. People commonly learn about themselves only indirectly; often it is only by reading the reactions of others that people can see how harsh, kind, or annoying they are. It is also because when trying to know the self, the thing the individual is trying to see is the very thing that does the looking. Buddhism offers many evocative images to illustrate this special challenge: Just as a knife cannot cut itself, the mind cannot be directed toward itself. This makes knowing the self, especially in a deep way, an especially difficult task. Knowing the self thus requires special kinds of tools and methods. The chapter then considers the concept of Buddha Nature.

Historical Roots of Existentialism

2020 ◽  
pp. 56-71
Author(s):  
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Keyword(s):  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
The Self ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Context Features ◽  
Freedom And Responsibility

This chapter shows the inheritance by existentialism of ideas from the philosophical tradition. Socrates serves for Kierkegaard and Marcel as a model for the authentic practice of philosophy and for initiating interior reflection of the self. Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus debated Stoicism’s understanding of freedom from external circumstances. Husserl and Heidegger interpreted Augustine’s conception of time, while Heidegger along with Beauvoir adapted, in a secular context, features of his conception of religious conversion. Augustine, Shakespeare, and Montaigne explored inner reflection and the nature of the self which came to be critically echoed in existentialist conceptions. The Enlightenment generated a philosophy of human freedom, defending the rational autonomy of the individual. Critical engagement of these ideas is shown to have shaped existentialist conceptions of authenticity, subjectivity, inwardness, freedom, and responsibility.

Developing an Empirical-Phenomenological Approach to Schizophrenia Research

1992 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
The Self ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Lost And Found ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
New Research ◽  
Progressive Course

AbstractSchizophrenia has historically been considered a severe psychiatric disorder with a chronic and progressive course; an assumption that has shaped both clinical research and public policy. Recent studies have suggested, however, that many people recover from this disorder to varying degrees, prompting new research approaches that focus on factors influencing improvement as well as pathology. An empirical-phenomenological approach appears especially promising as an avenue to investigating the active role the person may play in improvement. The dimensions of everyday life that are discussed as providing a conceptual framework for investigations of the active role of the person are intentionality, temporality, and meaning. Within this framework a four-step process of recovering and reconstructing the self in schizophrenia is then delineated, with concrete illustrations of each step drawn from interviews with one young woman with schizophrenia. The findings are taken to represent the kinds of valuable insights that may be garnered from an empirical-phenomenological approach to research built upon a recognition of the importance of the dimensions of intentionality, temporality, and meaning in the everyday life of those afflicied with severe mental illness. There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again. T. S. Eliot

Homogeneity, “glocalism” or somewhere in between?

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 288-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Cecilia de Burgh-Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Marketing Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pierre Loti ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper aims to expand current theories of globalisation to a consideration of its impact on the individual. Much work has been done on the impact of globalisation on social, political and economic structures. In this paper, globalisation, for the individual, reflects a re-conceptualisation of the Self/Other encounter. In order to explore this Self/Other dimension, the paper analyses the literary work of nineteenth-century writer Pierre Loti since his work begins to problematise this important motif. His work also provides insight into the effect on the individual when encountering the Other in a globalised context. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from literary criticism, the paper adopts an interpretive approach. Using the fiction and non-fiction work of Pierre Loti, an integrated psychoanalytical, postcolonial analysis is conducted to draw out possible insights into how Loti conceptualises the Other and is thus transformed himself. Findings – The paper finds that the Self/Other encounter shifts in the era of globalisation. The blurring of the Self/Other is part of the impact of globalisation on the individual. Further, the paper argues that Loti was the first to problematise Self/Other at a point in history where the distinction seemed clear. Loti's work is instructive for tracing the dissolution of the Self/Other encounter since the themes and issues raised in his early work foreshadow our contemporary experience of globalisation. Research limitations/implications – This paper takes a specific view of globalisation through an interpretive lens. It also uses one specific body of work to answer the research question of what impact globalisation has on the individual. A broader sampling and application of theoretical strains out of the literary criticism canon would expand the parameters of this study. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to current theorisations of globalisation in that it re-conceptualises classical understandings of the Self/Other divide. The finding that the Self/Other divide is altered in the current era of globalisation has impact for cultural and marketing theory since it re-focuses attention on the shifting nature of identity and how we encounter the Other in our daily existence.

scholarly journals A book as an attribute of everyday life culture (based on the German classics)

Bibliosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
N. N. Misyurov
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Material Thing ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Inner World

The functional role of books (scientific, artistic, philosophical, religious and moralistic) in the public prac­tice of the German Enlightenment is comparable to the significance of such major national concepts as the Lutheran faith and a special German character. The idea of aesthetic education in contemporary historical circumstances and socio-political circumstances actually became the ideology of national self-determina­tion. The book, its semantic «images» as literary reading images enshrined in famous works of German clas­sics, helps better revealing the spiritual content of the era and the human inner world (in typical «hero of time»). Educational book (serious and entertaining) defines the vector of social development in Germany.  German book in its «materiality» belongs to the everyday life culture, reflects the level of development of the book business in Germany and the specificity of the «culture of consumption». Everyday life culture is a holistic «life world» shared «values» and «meanings» perceived as a world attitudes and behavioral habits and regarded as a natural space of human activity. Such an approach makes it possible to study the typical, recurring forms of «cultural practices», before remaining on the periphery of classical humanities. «Reading» could be attributed to this range of socio-cultural practices. Philosophical basis of the study is the following: everything that a thing opens our perception is simply «a scheme of sensation» changing in accordance with «angles», in which we perceive them; what the thing is in its materiality can be revealed only through our final experiences. A material thing and its «causality» base in sensory perception of a subject. This series of «material things» should include «the book in general» and specifically German book as an attribute of everyday life culture of the Enlightenment. The author investigates representations of meanings of «books» (ash an abstracted subject of study) realized in the «chronotope» of a literary work. The structure of «reading image» and «book image» identified during the texts analysis of famous masterpieces of German classics have a moral connotation.  

scholarly journals The The Daily Life of Contemporary Mothers – Between Social Expectations, the Sense of Duty and the Individual Experience of Motherhood

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (54) ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Monika Lewicka
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Narrative Interview ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Ideal

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to present the dilemmas of everyday life of contemporary mothers related to society’s expectations of motherhood and their individual experiences. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem was the (re)construction of everyday life of modern mothers during a pandemic. The narrative interview technique was used in the research. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This article analyzes how mothers experience motherhood during a pandemic against the background of social transformations. The issue of everyday life as an important category was presented in the considerations contained in the article below. Then, the methodological assumptions and research results focused on the issues of the multiplicity of choices in the present day and the difficulties associated with them, as well as the everyday life of mothers, were presented. The article ends with reflections on the situation of mothers in the context of contemporary challenges. RESEARCH RESULTS: A conclusion can be drawn about the positioning of motherhood between the traditional and modern pattern of the ideal mother. First of all, mothers feel tired of the seriousness of the role they play, and from fulfilling which many people can “hold them accountable”. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conducted research shows interesting conclusions pointing to changes related to the perception of the role of the mother in modern times. They contribute to the undertaking of more extensive research on the need for (re) construction of motherhood.

scholarly journals THE POETICS OF ADULTERY IN THE ARTISTIC WORLD OF I. A. BUNIN

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
Shestakova E.G.
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Aesthetic Perception ◽  
Ethical Choice ◽  
The Everyday

The article substantiates the relevance of isolating adultery as one of the independent, powerful phenomena of the artistic world of I. Bunin. It is proved that adultery in the Bunin world is inappropriate to interpret as trivial adultery, considered in an unambiguous ethical coordinate system. The main approaches and directions of research into the poetics of adultery are determined: historical-typological, comparative, method of motive's analysis. The main purposes of the article are: to trace the main variants and variations of adultery, to understand how and in what main directions its development took place in the Bunin world; to clarify the moral, aesthetic and existential foundations of adultery as something that binds together such contradictory and necessary for comprehending the mystery of authenticity (F. Stepun), personality and truthfulness of feelings, as liberty and duty, love and responsibility, loyalty and betrayal, devotion, decency and possibility of change for self, choice and chance. Results. The fact of adultery in I. Bunin in no way implies immorality, depravity of a person, even in those cases when it is unambiguous from the traditional point of view. This is typical both for works focused on the poetics of realism and for stories for which the discoveries of existentialism are significant. The banality, predictability of the situation and types of heroes of adultery, inevitable when describing betrayal, are the equivalent of the Kantian situation of moral and ethical choice in I. Bunin. Aesthetic perception and the experience of betrayal are one of the opportunities for the heroes to know who they are. Conclusions. I. Bunin's deliberate attention to the everyday life of adultery, but also his non-admission in the practice of life, is the hero's choice of their usual everyday life as a choice of themselves, an almost Heidegger's opportunity to be oneself, and not a representative of the vulgarity of everyday situations. Adultery is a space of inner freedom and honesty of the self, existential infinity and unlimited possibilities of immersion and self-awareness, as well as his rights, duties (not)choosing oneself.Key words: motive, the paradox of adultery, moral and ethical choice, existential attitude. У статті обґрунтовується актуальність виокремлення адюльтеру як одного із самостійних, сильних феноменів художнього світу І. Буніна. Доводиться, що адюльтер у бунінському світі неправомірно трактувати як тривіальну подружню невірність, розглянуту в однозначній етичній системі координат. Визначаються основні підходи та напрями дослідження поетики адюль-теру: історико-типологічний, порівняльний, метод мотивного аналізу. Мета. Простежити основні варіанти й варіації адюльтеру, зрозуміти, як і в яких основних напрямах відбувався його розви-ток у бунінському світі; прояснити моральну, естетичну та екзистенційну основи адюльтеру як того, що пов’язує воєдино такі суперечливі й необхідні для осягнення таємниці автентичності (Ф. Степун) особистості та істинності почуття, як свобода та обов’язок, любов і відповідальність, вірність і зрада, відданість, порядність і можливість змін для я, вибір і випадковість. Результат. Факт адюльтеру в І. Буніна в жодному разі не передбачає аморальність, порочність людини навіть у тих випад-ках, коли це з традиційної позиції виявляється однозначним. Це характерно і для творів, орієнтованих на поетику реалізму, і для оповідань, для яких значимі відкриття екзистенціалізму. Неминучі під час опису зради банальність, передбачуваність ситуації й типів героїв адюльтеру є в І. Буніна еквівалентом кантівської ситуації морально-етичного вибору. Естетичне сприй-няття та переживання зради – це одна з можливостей для героїв пізнати себе справжніх. Висновки. Навмисна увага І. Буніна до буденності адюльтеру, проте водночас його недопущення на практиці життя – це зроблений героями вибір своєї звичної буденності як вибір себе, майже хайдеггерівська можливість бути самим собою, а не репрезентантом вульгарності загальножиттєвих ситуацій. Адюльтер – це простір внутрішньої свободи й чесності я, екзистен-ціальної безмежності та безмежної можливості занурення й усвідомлення себе, а також його права, обов’язки (не)вибору себе.Ключові слова: мотив, парадокси адюльтеру, морально-етичний вибір, екзистенційне світовідчуття.

scholarly journals The Warren Commission, Postmodernity and the Rise of Conspiratorial Thinking in America

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Lobo
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Local Narratives

The era of post-modernity has completely changed the way that we see, recognize and question the world, and what we accept to be true. During and after the 1960s many witnessed the rise of a greater multiplicity of local narratives. Prior to this, the grand narratives of the past, such as religion, the Enlightenment, and science were taken as whole, singular truths. However, such metanarratives tend to ignore the individual experiences that do not fit neatly into categories constructed by major institutional authorities. This disconnection from the personal pushed more people to doubt, in favour of the narrative(s) where the Self is visible and heard. It can be argued that this revolution in thought, and meaning and narrative-making in America grew after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. By examining Jean-Francois Lyotard’s theory of postmodernity, and those who expanded on his ideas, we can highlight how the assassination of JFK marked the onset and rise of the postmodern conspiracy theory. This includes the deconstruction of trust, the breakdown of “objective” reality and identity markers as well as the use of new mass media technologies, such as the film camera and the television.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document