Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self

Named an Outstanding Academic Title of the Year for 2013 by Choice. The self has a history. In the West, the idea of the soul entered Christianity with the Church Fathers, notably Augustine. During the Renaissance the idea of the individual attained preeminence, as in the works of Montaigne. In the 17th century, philosophers such as Descartes formulated notions of self-hood that did not require a divine foundation; in the next century, Hume grew skeptical of the self's very existence. Ideas of the self have changed markedly since the Romantic period and most scholars today regard it as at best a mental construct. First-person genres such as diaries and memoirs have provided an outlet for self-expression. Protestant diaries replaced the Catholic confessional, but secular diaries such as Pepys's may reveal yet more about the self. After Richardson, novels competed with diaries and memoirs as vehicles of self-expression, though memoirs survived and continue to thrive, while the diary has found a new incarnation in the personal blog. Writing the Self narrates the intertwined histories of the self and of self-expression through first-person literature.

Table of Contents:
1. The Self and History / 2. The Soul from Animism to Monotheism [prehistory to medieval period] / 3. Exercising the Soul and Mind [14C-16C] / 4. Self-Examination [late 16C-17C] / 5. Reasons of the Mind and Heart [mid 17C-early 18C] / 6. The Soul Dethroned [18C] / 7. Rousseau and Romanticism [mid 18C-early 19C] / 8. Revolution and Reaction [19C France] / 9. Idealism and Irrationalism [19C Germany etc.] / 10. The Individual and the Crowd [19C USA] / 11. Doubting the Soul and Discovering of the Body [mid-late 19C] / 12. Evolution and Affirmation [late 19C-early 20C] / 13. The Search for Authenticity [mid 20C] / 14. The Death of the Subject [late 20C] / 15. The Self is Dead, Long Live the Self [1985-2010] / Bibliography / Index

About the Author :
Peter Heehs is an independent scholar based in India. He has written or edited nine books and published more than fifty articles. His publications include The Lives of Sri Aurobindo (Columbia University Press, 2008), Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Expression and Experience (New York University Press, 2002), Nationalism, Terrorism, Communalism (Oxford University Press, 1998, reprinted 2000, 2005, 2006) and The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India 1900-1910 (Oxford University Press, 1993). His books have been translated into Russian, Dutch, French and Japanese.

Review :
Peter Heehs's Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self offers a concise yet thorough introduction to over 2000 years of textual explorations of the self: major works, writers, genres, and conceptual and theoretical questions … The novelty of Heehs's book lies in the focus on autobiographical texts, and the skilful weaving of primary sources and larger theoretical shifts. Available as a slim paperback, Heehs's book is also more accessible than many of these other monographs. Heehs demonstrates broad knowledge of literary, religious, and philosophical history through examples ranging from canonical writers and philosophers to lesser-known figures such as the visionary Hildegard of Bingen, the Sufi Ruzbihan Baqli, and the psychologist and diarist Marion Milner. Heehs is an adept storyteller, presenting intertwined characters and plots that drive the story being told and make the book a pleasure to read. What is the self? Do we exist? Aurobindo's biographer embarks on a highly ambitious history of ideas of the self, embracing Asian and Islamic attitudes, but focussing on Europe and America, all the way through to the World Wide Web. Drawing on diaries and memoirs, poetry and novels, Heehs conjures up vivid portraits of all the leading contributors to this debate. It becomes an intellectual history of modern times. Essential reading for all those planning their autobiographies. Heehs undertakes the challenging task of summarizing the history of the concepts of self and self-consciousness, as well as a history of self-expression as seen in first-person accounts...His thinking on the subtle distinctions in recent demarcations of a self should attract many readers. This concise yet comprehensive work by Heehs (independent scholar) fills a large niche in the literature on the nature and history of self. It offers an account of the self over the last two millennia, thereby capturing fully the idea that the self 'has changed from a ghostly spirit to a substantial soul to an autonomous individual to a center of expression to a fiction constructed by social or biological forces.' By deliberately including non-Western traditions regarding selfhood, this volume also broadens the scope of more typical discussions regarding self. In moving beyond standard Anglo-American and Continental approaches, Heehs ensures a rich future for selfhood scholarship. He clearly frames the idea that the traditional Western view of self is rather peculiar: "people living in traditional cultures in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australasia--virtually everywhere except Europe and North America--don't see the self" as understood by leading Western accounts thereof. In addition to this provocative discussion, the book highlights the significance of diaries and memoirs in the development of a veridical account of the diverse nature of self, and offers ample, carefully selected quotations from key thinkers throughout the history of the development of self. Excellent notes, bibliography, and index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.