BALANCING THE CENTRE OF NARRATIVE GRAVITY
Abjection and Diffraction of Self in Nalini Jameela’s Autobiographies
Keywords:
Abjection, Collaborative Autobiography, Diffraction, Identity, Intersubjectivity, SelfAbstract
Building on Eakin’s critical position on the self in autobiography, this paper configures the nature of self and identity in collaborative autobiography. By integrating Dennett’s idea of self as a “centre of narrative gravity” into Eakin’s theoretical frame work – constituted of Damasio’s neurobiological self and Ulric Neisser’s Five Kinds of SelfKnowledge – the paper argues that our identities control the porous boundaries of our potentially limitless narrative-selves. These narrative selves are situated in nature as they manifest differently in different contexts thwarting any attempt to nail any one representation as original. The paper deploys Haraway’s diffraction as the more appropriate metaphor for this narrative-self formation. Against this theoretical background Jameela’s revision of her collaborative autobiography, Oru Lymgikathozhilāliyude Ātmakadha as NjānLymgikathozhilāli: Nalini Jameelayude Āthmakatha is read as an abjection (Kristeva’s formulation) of her earlier identity and self.
References
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