Ithaca College

This essay was published in the most recent issue of Writing on the Edge, an interdisciplinary journal focusing on writing and the teaching of writing, UC Davis.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B73EBMXKTqeJOUsyMkVBV2p5bGgxMzZyUlZyUXpLMzIwMHQ0/view?usp=sharing

Abstract: 

Intellectual historians generally hold that the rise of the self in the West since the Renaissance was a positive development, improving our lives and our culture with progressive concepts, such as human rights. But as Michel Foucault argued, it can also be seen as a tool by which the state and market control and exploit us, making us, I would add, more lonely and selfish than we already are. Focusing on the genres of personal lyric poetry and the personal essay, I explore Western literature’s contribution to this "hyper-individualism." We can view that contribution more generously though, with the help of Paul Ricouer’s philosophy that argues that language isn't just a tool for hucksters, but can lessen our isolation. Literature can counter our narcissistic tendencies after all, given the appropriate attitude toward it.