Vanishing Selves: Negotiating Selfhood in Self-Representational Works by Goethe, Sand, and Nietzsche

This study examines a series of self-representations from the 19th century (by Goethe, Sand, Nietzsche) that obstruct a confessional and psychologizing mode by diminishing the significance of the self. The theoretical inspiration is drawn from thinkers like Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and others, who give priority to the individuals close attachment to a multifaceted world. This approach will lead us to themes and concepts like participation, perception, togetherness, otherness, corporeality, collectivism, publicness, and sociality. Vanishing Selves displays different forms of attachment to the world and identifies the ethical and existential potential in the affirmation of a world.