@article{ref1,
title="Narcissism as Ethical Practice?",
journal="Cultural sociology",
year="2010",
author="Campbell, Elaine",
volume="4",
number="1",
pages="23-44",
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.<p />",
language="",
issn="1749-9755",
doi="10.1177/1749975509356752",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1749975509356752"
}