Citation

Campbell E. Cult. Sociol. 2010; 4(1): 23-44.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, British Sociological Association, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1749975509356752

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

An auto/biographical society brings with it fears of a drift towards a culture of narcissism in which the mutuality and ethicality of collective life may be eclipsed in favour of a self-indulgent ‘aesthetics of existence’. This article focuses on auto/ biographical practice, regarding it as a quintessential ‘technology of the self’ in the Foucauldian sense. Paradoxically, this positions auto/biography within a thesis which emphasizes the constitution of the self as a project of aesthetic inscription, posing dangers for ethicality and commitment to public life. Is an aesthetic disposition ethically indispensable? The paper explores this problematic through the lens of Foucauldian ethics. A critical (re-)examination of the aesthetics of reading and writing auto/biography suggests the potential for realizing a different kind of ethical relation to ourselves and others. These issues are explicated by reference to the popular cultural text, Dead Man Walking — an auto/biographical narrative which is explicitly ‘aestheticized’ as entertainment.