Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self

by Peter Heehs

The self has a history. In the West, the idea of the soul entered Christianity with the Church Fathers, notably Augustine. During the Renaissance the idea of the individual attained preeminence, as in the works of Montaigne. In the seventeenth century, philosophers such as Descartes formulated notions of selfhood that did not require a divine foundation; in the next century, Hume grew skeptical of the self's very existence. Ideas of the self have changed markedly since the Romantic period and most scholars today regard it as at best a mental construct.
First-person genres such as diaries and memoirs have provided an outlet for self-expression. Protestant diaries replaced the Catholic confessional, but secular diaries such as Pepys's may reveal yet more about the self. After Richardson, novels competed with diaries and memoirs as vehicles of self-expression, though memoirs survived and continue to thrive, while the diary has found a new incarnation in the personal blog.
Writing the Self narrates the intertwined histories of the self and of self-expression through first-person literature.

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

Reviews

[Sohail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not going to deny that this book taught me about several notable diaries and memoirs from prominent authors, but the shallow manner in which the author scoops different subjects without dipping into them, as well as his obsession with the concept of God (the Abrahamic god, and not god, or gods and goddesses) in a book that's supposed to be about the 'self', have turned it into a light read that serves different purposes than writing the self.

[Kevin Mckinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good and interesting info but it tried to cram so much into its pages that there were sections that felt almost pointless because they were so short. I'm glad I read this, though-- it's pointed me towards a lot of interesting-looking books