TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Narcissism as Ethical Practice?
JO  - Cultural sociology
A1  - Campbell, Elaine
SP  - 23
EP  - 44
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
N2  - 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 />
LA  - 
SN  - 1749-9755
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1749975509356752
ID  - ref1
ER  -