Visual Art and Self-Construction

By Katrina Mitcheson

Starting from Nietzsche, Freud and Foucault's criticisms of a simple, given self, Katrina Mitcheson addresses the problem of how a complex self is constructed, and how a hermeneutics of the self can avoid reproducing a subjugated self. Critically examining Ricoeur's narrative account of self-construction, Mitcheson makes the case that the narrative model overlooks the variety of processes that can contribute to forming a self and neglects the materiality of these processes. She develops an alternative account of a plural and corporeal hermeneutics of the self: exploring how visual art can operate as a critical technology of the self. Art not only exposes practices that contribute to our subjugation, but can also discover, explore and affect bodily processes, enabling experimentation in self-construction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074869367X
• ISBN13: 9780748693672
• Release Date: June 2021
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"