Wole Soyinka and Autobiography as Political Unconscious*
Susan Friedman launches a useful critique of general theories of auto/ biography that postulate it as having to do solely with a growth of individualism. She is right in arguing, counter to Gusdorf and others, that the form depends on identification, interdependence and community as means of enablement. For Friedman, &dquo;individualistic paradigms of the self ignore the role of collective and relational identities in the individuation process of women and minorities&dquo;, and she shows how particularly relevant relationality is in assessing the process of women’s self-individuation.’ Though her critique is raised mainly in the context of women’s auto/biography, she offers an interesting way of considering questions of auto/biographies in general. Yet her propositions, though useful, require qualification. In my view, the site of the development of selfhood or individualism is not an interface solely of individual selves with other selves. It is important to take account also of the fact that selfhood or individualism cannot be fully understood without reference to social and other institutions with which
Annual Bibliography of Works About Life-Writing
Individually, as authors of our own life stories, we have the ability to rewrite the life-texts of those human beings who have been temporarily lost or forgotten, just as collectively, we have an opportunity to help perpetuate the inclusion of the widest spectrum of human difference and diversity. Obscuring any boundaries separating individuals from each other, the collective mindset in its most idealized form has the potential for encompassing the greatest possible universal identity.
Ethics and the professions.
We may not be able to make you love reading, but ethics and the professions will lead you to love reading starting from now. Book is the window to open the new world. The world that you want is in the better stage and level. World will always guide you to even the prestige stage of the life. You know, this is some of how reading will give you the kindness. In this case, more books you read more knowledge you know, but it can mean also the bore is full.