Vanishing Selves : Negotiating Selfhood in Self-Representational Works by Goethe, Sand, and Nietzsche

Vanishing Selves deals with autobiographical works by Goethe, Sand, and Nietzsche. A key strategy in these works is to downplay the significance of the self. They avoid an interiorizing strategy in favour of an affirmation the world. The objective of Vanishing Selves is to reveal the existential as well as ethical claims of this affirmation. This study examines a series of self-representations from the 19th century (by Goethe, Sand, Nietzsche) that obstruct a confessional and psychologizing mode by diminishing the significance of the self. The theoretical inspiration is drawn from thinkers like Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and others, who give priority to the individual's close attachment to a multifaceted world. This approach will lead us to themes and concepts like "participation," "perception," "togetherness," "otherness," "corporeality," "collectivism," "publicness," and "sociality." Vanishing Selves displays different forms of attachment to the world and identifies the ethical and existential potential in the affirmation of a world