On the Ego and the Echo

There is more than mere resonance between the first-person singular, “ego,” and the word for those "echoes” which may rebound from any number of sources, for self-consciousness would be unconscious of itself without reflection. This dependency of the self upon reflection also implies, however, that the ego could never have simply been one with itself, but remains open at its core to alterity and plurality: to echoes of unknown provenance. This course will pursue the subject(s) of self, speech, and reflection, with readings of theoretical and literary texts from antiquity to the present.