The transformative potential of Ricoeur's narrative self

Mitcheson, Katrina

Abstract

This chapter explores how Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity responds to the problem of identifying a self through change by developing a dynamic concept of the self which is always open to transformation. Ricoeur aims to provide a description of the self that does not rely on a notion of unchanging substance or posit a self that is prior to or outside of the process of self-construction. His is concerned to allow for ethical agency, requiring both adequate continuity to identify an agent as responsible for their acts and that we can project ourselves into the future in a way that allows us to make promises and commitments. Ricoeur’s account of narrative identity can allow for this continuity through time while also incorporating the possibility of self-transformation. His account of narrative identity as established through emplotment makes the self an ongoing task. He maintains that our reading of literature has the potential to transform us. When we take up new actions which reading makes possible for us we refigure both the field of human action and the ethical agent. Though I argue the possibilities for self-transformation are also limited by an entirely narrative model of self-construction. This suggests the need for a hermeneutics of the self which includes but is not limited to narrative.

• Deposit Date: Mar 19, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Transformation in Contemporary French Philosophy
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13961789
• Contract Date: Mar 17, 2025