Abstract

Central among the claims of this project is the notion that as a theorist of subjectivity, one has an ethical obligation to nurture, rather than to merely dismantle, the self; this, to the extent that theory has an impact on the person whose daily existence is more or less defined by dominant world views that are in turn influenced by intellectual thought. To fulfill this obligation, I propose an elaboration of the general post-structuralist project as outlined in my opening chapters by examining what P. D. Ouspensky calls the "possible evolution" of a self without reverting to outdated models that neglect the effects of the socio-cultural environment. The initial thrust of this elaboration entails theoretical attention to the body, though my ultimate aim is to indicate the potentiality of aesthetic embodiment as lived experience. Though recent years have seen an increased interest in body theory, what remains on the periphery of much theoretical exploration is consideration of physical practices that shape and develop subjective experience. I attempt to compensate for this lack by examining creative texts (written, visual and sonic) that, I suggest, prompt self-knowledge of very particular varieties. My argument is that texts that challenge conventions of narrative or content and, by extension, the immediate experience of the observer, compel us to think and feel differently, as "new," embodied selves. The text thus functions as a tool (and thus a praxis) in a process of self-reformation. Where my project extends the theoretical work of its forerunners is in its consideration of a specialized form of religious practice that enlists the immediacy of embodiment and consciousness as a compulsory and highly disciplined source of self-knowledge. This work may be understood as a culmination (one culmination among many, I should add, whose lines intersect, and mutate, in conjunction with others--aesthetic, religious or otherwise) of my endeavor to delineate an art of living in the postmodern world.