Writing as a technology of the self in Kierkegaard and Foucault

Abstract

Writing is a very important means by which we can work on ourselves. Yet as a technology of the self writing has changed substantially at different times during European history. This essay sketches sorne of the crucial characteristics of writing as a technology of the self for Plato's contemporaries, for the early church fathers, and then for Peter Abelard. The changes exemplified in the confessional writing of Abelard became the platform for writing as a technology of the self in European modernism. The characteristics of modernist writing as a technology of the self are examined in some detail in the work of Kierkegaard, particularly with respect to his aesthetic writings and his use of multiple narrative voices. Kierkegaard's uses of writing are compared and contrasted with those of Baudelaire and Foucault.