Ethical Complexities in Reading and Writing Autobiography: Thinking the Humanity of Others in The Instant of My Death

摘要

Since ethical judgements regarding the author derive from legal protocols such as the demands for autobiographical evidence that the ‘truth’ is being told, ‘ethics’ are implicated in life writing. In this article, I trouble the role of ethics in our literary practices of reading and writing the autobiographical by complicating what can be considered as autobiographical ‘truth’ and ‘evidence’ in conjunction with Jacques Derrida's deconstruction of the ethical. Drawing on the writings of Maurice Blanchot, mediated by the thinking of Derrida, I discuss ethical possibilities for thinking the humanity of others within literary practices as implicated by the ethical question that confronts the reader and writer of the so-called autobiography. Using the example of Maurice Blanchot's text The Instant of My Death, I challenge the literary institution to examine vigilantly the implicit assumptions and discourses underlying our canonised reading and writing acts. Such a re-examination, I argue, has implications not only for literary critical practices but also for education in the humanities as such.View full textDownload full textKeywordsautobiography, ethics, Jacques Derrida, Maurice BlanchotRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2012.643216