PHIL30250 Philosophy of Autobiography

Academic Year 2023/2024

This module is not only about published autobiographies, but about our broader autobiographical efforts in many different contexts with strangers, colleagues, friends and family members. All of us occasionally feel the need to explain ourselves, to respond to criticisms, to deny accusations; to boast, to apologise, to confess. So this module is more about the 'conversation' between the autobiographer and the reader-listener. We ask not only how much a person can understand herself, but more generally how much one person can understand another, i.e. how much the listener can imaginatively project himself into the autobiographer's "shoes". We look at the risk of self-deception, of wishful thinking, of emotional confusion, and of self-serving rationalisation. We ask how different autobiographers might deal with guilt, shame, and trauma. We ask what it means to identify with a role (e.g. as doctor, as mother, as Muslim), and to evaluate oneself in the that role. Throughout we will return again and again to questions of authenticity, of life's meaning, and of the self.