Reaction to Registers of Self

Eakins in the beginnings of this chapter states that he is approaching the term autobiography 'in the spirit of a cultural anthropologist'. He has obviously struggled himself with the usage of 'I' found within literary works. When disecting the work of Lejeune, Eakins concludes that Nietszche can be held accountable for his logic. "The name shared by the text's protagonist, narrator, and author, the 'I' figure so named remains no less a creature of fiction---the end of autobiography." Eakin's seems somewhat cynical about this topic. What I found fascinating was his thoughts pertaing to the idea of there being multiple selves or dualism that we as humans can not deter from thus making it difficult for there to exist a singular "I". It is impossible to distinguish between the physical body and the mind. Eakins references Deny and Camus study of Madame I---as well as classifying the most successful autobiographical material being that which pertains to the author reflecting upon their own physical body-----a mangled leg or disfigured face. Does having some sort of deformity or physical ailment cause us literally to have a change within the context of our autobiographical information? Ironic that the film we screened on Tuesday "Phantom Limb" definately relates to this text---the narrarator/protagonist/"I"---has had the experience of losing his brother---comparing it to the physical ailment of losing a limb a part of his body is no longer present---this has plagued him and become part of his autobiographical information. Eakins would likely approve of film and enjoy this documentary claiming that in fact it is autobiographical.