Literature in the Age of the Self - Selfy Stories Podcast Event

Reference to the self is ubiquitous in contemporary culture. But what is the self? Is it discovered or created? How do the stories we tell about ourselves shape our identity? What part does literature play in reflecting or defining an era’s culture of selfhood?

To help us answer these questions, we have assembled distinguished writers and academics whose works in various genres shine a light on these issues.

This afternoon event will comprise two parts:

I. A CREATIVE ROUNDTABLE (5.15-7pm) bringing celebrated writers into conversation with each other and the audience to discuss the experience and representation of selfhood in the twenty-first century.

Our guests will be:

• Rachel Cusk, novelist (Parade, 2024, Second Place, 2021, the Outline trilogy: Outline | Transit | Kudos, 2014-18, Arlington Park, 2006, among many others), memoirist (A Life’s Work, 2001; The Last Supper, 2009; Aftermath, 2012), and playwright (Medea, 2015).
• Brian Dillon, memoirist (In the Dark Room, 2005), novelist (Sanctuary, 2011), author of a number of genre-defying books blending the personal and the critical (Affinities, 2023; Suppose a Sentence, 2020; Essayism, 2017; The Great Explosion, 2015; Objects in this Mirror, 2014; I Am Sitting in a Room, 2012; Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives, 2009), and curator (Tate and Hayward Galleries).
• Vidyan Ravinthiran, memoirist (Asian/Other: Life, Poems, and the Problem of Memoir, 2025), poet (Avidya, forthcoming; The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here, 2019; Grun-tu-molani, 2014), and Harvard academic (Spontaneity and Form in Modern Prose, 2022; Worlds Woven Together, 2022; Elizabeth Bishop’s Prosaic, 2015).

This creative roundtable will be preceded by

II. A PANEL OF ENGAGING TALKS BY ACADEMICS (3- 4.30pm) about the self in literature, philosophy, and history.

Our speakers will be:

• Prof. Clare Carlisle (KCL Philosophy), author of Transcendence for Beginners (forthcoming), The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life (2023), Spinoza’s Religion (2021), Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard (2019), On Habit (2014).
• Dr Eric Langley (UCL English), author of Shakespeare’s Contagious Sympathies (2018), Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (2009), and, as a poet, of Raking Light (2017).
• Prof. Tom Stern (UCL Philosophy, A&H Vice-Dean for Interdisciplinarity), author of Philosophy and Theatre (2019) and Nietzsche’s Ethics (2019).

Tea and coffee will be served in adjoining rooms between 4.30 and 5.15pm.

This event is generously supported by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Leverhulme Trust, UCL Centre for Humanities Education, UCL Philosophy, UCL English, and UCL Global Engagement.