3. The Ethics of Authenticity: Charles Taylor

In this episode, we discuss Chapter 5 of Cusk’s Outline alongside Chapters 3 to 5 of Taylor’s book, The Ethics of Authenticity. Taylor identifies a tension between the sense of identity which is derived from belonging to a community, and contemporary culture’s emphasis on the importance of individual self-creation. We reflect on the ways in which Cusk’s book represents this tension.

Speaker names:

• Dr. Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL.
• Alice Harberd, PhD Student in the Philosophy Department at UCL.

What is Selfy Stories?

Reference to the self is ubiquitous in contemporary culture. But what is the self? Is it discovered or created? To what degree is it shaped by external forces and to what degree is it subject to internal control? How do the stories we tell about ourselves shape our identity? To what extent is it valid to invoke ideas of truth, sincerity, and authenticity in relation to the self? What kinds of self does literature delineate?

These are some of the questions we will be asking in this UCL podcast. In each episode, a literary scholar and a philosopher ponder how present-day literary representations of the self relate to what philosophers have to say about it. The literary focus of the first season is Outline, by Rachel Cusk; the literary focus of the second is The Years, by Annie Ernaux. In each episode, chapters or sections of these books are discussed alongside a relevant intervention in philosophy.