Speaking the Self into Becoming?

Abstract

The self is an alluring topic for debate, and Boesch’s (2003) article creates ample space for playing with ideas and positions on personhood. I have chosen specific portions of the article to lead towards discussions of self and ‘I’, the notion of an inner self, multiplicity of the self, and the cultural configuration and language of selfhood. This commentary has been sprinkled with examples of self-related experiences from Indian communities in order to demonstrate the important ways in which cultures can diverge in the organization of activity around being a person. Hopefully, these examples will help to distract readers from aspects of their own cultural and personal lives while entering into different perspectives on sociality and individual existence. I end by questioning whether, despite its attractions, the self has become somewhat overexposed to academic attention in the recent past.