Thursday, 28th November 2019 at 19.00
An Open Academy of Humanities lecture
Theories of narrative identity
Lecture by: Rita Szántó
According to narrative identity theories, it is worth exploring the questions of our personal identity within the terminological framework used for discussing narratives. Simply put, when we think about who we are, the stories we tell about ourselves and the context in which we understand our events play a more important role than many other aspects. Narrative identity theories appeared in the 20th century in response to various “fractures” that emerged at that time, such as the failure of earlier identity theories, the emergence of psychoanalysis, and the disintegration and transformation of the concept of self as a result of historical traumas. Theories of narrative identity also seek answers to questions about how the experiences of the individual, the structure of time, as well as the surface and the inner core of the self interlink. The lecture provides insight into these topics by examining the ideas of major authors on narrative identity (Ricœur, MacIntyre, Axis).
Rita Szántó is a 2nd year philosophy PhD candidate at Eötvös Loránd University. She researches Nietzsche’s concept of “eternal recurrence”.
