Shape of the I: Volume 2

50.1, Spring/Summer 2012
Julie Carr and John-Michael Rivera, Editors

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What now is an I? This double issue will be an investigation into the evolving and highly contested literary, philosophical, and scientific forms that interrogate the ontological, political, and imagined subject. Writers and scholars in the humanities must now consider what science is uncovering about the self; indeed, given recent research being performed in ecology, biology, biotechnology, psychology, and cognitive theory, we must reimagine the first person in ways poststructuralist theory never dreamed of. In addition, ideas of subjectivity are evolving in what some have called our 鈥渢ransnational鈥 moment. In these special issues we are interested in exploring how forms are being invented to house evolving concepts of selfhood. Our contention is that all historical and contemporary forms are created in response to changing ideas of what constitutes the human subject. But it is equally true that our ideas of subjectivity evolve with evolving literary, scientific, and cultural forms. Our goal is to render a more complete portrait of this dynamic. In this double-issue of ELN, the first issue features articles by important scholars and writers whose work expands our contemporary understanding of subjectivity, while the second issue will gather shorter essays that respond and interact with the lead essays, creating a series of conversations and debates.

 

In This Issue
  • Cognitive Theory & Selfhood
  • War & Legal Subjects
  • Language & Poetics
  • Memoir & Authenticity
  • Medicine & Ethics
  • Photography & Race
  • Technology & Disability
  • Gender & Performance
  • Self & Other
  • and more