The Tragedy of the Self: Lectures on Global Hermeneutics

Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines. Exploring the crosscultural spectrum of possible ways of conceiving of the self invites the more existential question of whether any of these possibilities might offer resources for dealing with the tragedies of today’s world, or maybe even saving it from some of them.

Cover design / Typesetting: LINE UP boek en media bv | Mirjam Kroondijk, Riëtte van Zwol

Publisher: University of Groningen Press
Broerstraat 4 9712 CP Groningen

Production support: LINE UP boek en media bv

The softcover version of this book (ISBN: 9789403430089) can be ordered via Print on demand directly on the site of our partner  Uitgeverij kleine Uil, and through all regular (internet) bookshops.

Open textbook edition available via: University of Groningen Open Textbooks