Reference to the self is ubiquitous in contemporary culture. But what is the self? Is it discovered or created? To what degree is it shaped by external forces and to what degree is it subject to internal control? How do the stories we tell about ourselves shape our identity? To what extent is it valid to invoke ideas of truth, sincerity, and authenticity in relation to the self? What kinds of self does literature delineate? 

These are some of the questions we will be asking in this UCL podcast. In each episode, a literary scholar and a philosopher ponder how present-day literary representations of the self relate to what philosophers have to say about it. The literary focus of the first season is Outline, by Rachel Cusk; the literary focus of the second is The Years, by Annie Ernaux. In each episode, chapters or sections of these books are discussed alongside a relevant intervention in philosophy.

Selfy Stories

Reference to the self is ubiquitous in contemporary culture. But what is the self? Is it discovered or created? What kinds of self does literature depict? And what do philosophers have to say about it? In this trailer episode we introduce the podcast’s key questions and the literary authors on whose works we will be focusing throughout the series. 

Speaker names:  

Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL. 
Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL. 

https://sites.google.com/view/uclphilandlitgroup/podcast

Trailer: The Self Today

In this episode, we consider the first chapter of Cusk’s Outline alongside a paper by Daniela Dover entitled ‘The Conversational Self’. The paper examines the role of conversations in getting to know people, what an understanding of this entails for how we think about the self, and how open we should be to the influence of others. We analyse the conversations reported in Cusk’s novel in the light of Dover’s ideal.

Speaker names: 

•	Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL.
•	Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL.


1. The Conversational Self: Daniela Dover

In this episode, we talk about Chapters 2 and 3 of Rachel Cusk’s Outline alongside a chapter from Williams’s book Truth and Truthfulness. The chapter considers the differences between sincerity and authenticity as contending ideals of truthfulness about the self. These two ideals, on Williams’s argument, entail different ways of thinking about the self. We contrast Williams’s notion of authenticity with that invoked by various characters in Outline.

Speaker names: 

•	Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL.
•	Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL.


2. From Sincerity to Authenticity: Bernard Williams

In this episode, we discuss Chapter 5 of Cusk’s Outline alongside Chapters 3 to 5 of Taylor’s book, The Ethics of Authenticity. Taylor identifies a tension between the sense of identity which is derived from belonging to a community and contemporary culture’s emphasis on the importance of individual self-creation. We reflect on the ways in which Cusk’s book represents this tension.

Speaker names: 

•	Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL.
•	Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL.

3. The Ethics of Authenticity: Charles Taylor

In this episode, we discuss Chapter 6 of Cusk’s Outline alongside an essay by Murdoch called The Idea of Perfection. In this essay, Murdoch argues that the way we pay attention to the world is ethically significant. We talk about how Cusk’s narrator attends to the world, and what this leads the reader to infer about her character and sense of self. 

Speaker names: 

•	Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL.
•	Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL.


4. The Ethics of Attention: Iris Murdoch

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