Fill in the blank!

[lollardfish]

Readings - The Self: From Antiquity to You.

• St. Augustine - Confessions
• Abelard and Heloise - Letters
• ______________________________???
• Ralph Ellison - The Invisible Man
• John McCain/Barak Obama - their autobiographies

I have some thoughts, but I want yours!

Comments

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

At the risk of seeming like self parody.... Seneca is a pretty important classical figure in the history of the self, both because his plays feature outsized characters built around extreme self-assertion and because Roman stoicism has what one recent classicist calls the most rubust version of the self in antiquity. Seneca talks about a daily ritual of self-scrutiny. I just bought, but have not yet read, this:

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Ancient-Modern-Insights-Individuality/dp/0226768252/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212427686&sr=8-4

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, where could I find a handy professor willing to educate me on Seneca over beer and tandoori chicken?

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

Yes, if only there were such a person!

I gather this is a class with some set texts? The obvious literary text, to me, is Hamlet--not only because it is an interesting document in the self but also because almost every version of the self has been found in it (he's a stoic, a skeptic, a melancholic, a romantic, a (or maybe the) Freudian subject, a post-modern self-alientated machine, what have you: one stop shopping.

More beer and chicken....

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

The set text is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The class must be on "the self" in a vague sort of way, and one can take any direction one wants to get there. An I.T. prof teaches a great course called, "Iam my Ipod," for example.

I decided to have them read St. Augustine (because I love teaching the Confessions) and Obama (because there are interesting comparisons made to Invisible Man), and McCain's autobiography for reasons of balance.

Then I had to fill in the blanks with these Freshmen who are, decidedly, not ready for significant reading loads. I feel that I can only add one or two other texts, and felt that the story of Abelard and Heloise would work nicely to do some things that the more formal autobiographical works would not. I also wanted something medieval, just to introduce "my world" to the students.

Then I get one more, maybe two, texts.

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

You could go the "The unexamined life is not worth living" route and study Socrates via Plato's dialogues. (one or two at least...)

I would have suggested Margary Kempe but on reflection, no. NO.

I know too little of your big gap-period to be helpful, but it sounds like you've got some great suggestions.

I think the Confessions are amazing.