Abstract
In his article "Literature of the Self in Foucault: Parrhesia and Autobiographical Discourse" Álvaro Luque Amo analyzes the framework of Foucault’s study of the technologies of the self. In his study, Michel Foucault analyses the practices of self-writing in the Graeco-Roman period. From this perspective, Foucault approaches the texts of classical authors to interpret what he calls a process of ethopoiesis, or construction of the subject: a subject who tells the truth about himself in the text. Foucault introduces concepts and ideas that are essential to understanding the evolution of autobiography and literature of the self. This article studies this Foucauldian perspective with the aim of considering these texts as a precedent of modern literature of the self. First, Pierre Hadot’s objections to Foucauldian notions are discussed; secondly, this article analyses the concept of parrhesia as a precedent to a writing of truth. Lastly, all of the above is used in the final section of the article to connect Senecan texts with Montaigne’s Essays, by way of illustration of the main thesis.
Recommended Citation
Luque, Álvaro.
"Literature of the Self in Foucault: Parrhesia and Autobiographical Discourse."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
20.4
(2018):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.3358>
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