The Collective Self by Ugolnik, Zachary;

Long description:

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Reveals a conception of selfhood in Byzantine and Middle-Eastern sources that is fundamentally collective rather than merely individual, challenging Western-centric narratives of the modern self and enriching contemporary discussions on communal ways of being

What if the story we tell ourselves about of the modern self is incomplete? The Collective Self chal­lenges narrow histories of Western selfhood that limit our understanding of both past and present.

Drawing on mirror imagery as a unifying thread, this book brings overlooked sources from the eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and Orthodox Christian tradition into conversation with Western genealogies of """"knowing thyself."""" Reflections and mirrors—an ancient technology—become embedded in discussions of self-knowledge. From the Odes of Solomon and Plotinus’s Enneads to the writings of Evagrius, Athanasius, and Ephrem the Syrian, and concluding with medieval Syriac writers and a few emblematic Sufi sources, Ugolnik reveals a conception of selfhood that is fundamentally collective rather than merely individual.

The Collective Self intervenes in current debates about embodiment, interdependence, and communion by demonstrating that reflexivity and communal selfhood are not exclusively modern or post-modern innovations. By highlighting optical theories that allow convergence in perception and embodied notions of the self, this book problematizes the assumption that introspection is only mental or individual and challenges typical associations of what is ancient or modern, Eastern or Western.

In these texts, mirror imagery articulates a convergence of gazes between oneself, the divine, and glorified beings—what Ugolnik calls """"I and We."""" This synthesis occurs through communal practices of prayer, liturgy, psalm, and hymn singing that create pathways for practitioners to participate in each other’s subjectivity across space and time.

As we enter a new bio-technological and computational age, this alternative history of self-reflection offers vital resources for imagining more inclusive models of identity, empathy, and col­lective flourishing—reminding us that technology has long served as a medium for understanding who we are.

Table of Contents:

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Transcending Frames: An Introduction 1

1 The Collective Self 22

2 Talking: The Odes of Solomon, the ""Hymn of the Pearl,"" and the ""Hymn of Christ"" 44

3 Seeing: ""Tesseracts,"" Spheres, and Sapphires in Plotinus and Evagrius 63

4 Reading: Textual Bodies in Athanasius and the Liturgical Tradition 87

5 Thinking: Synesthesia and the Luminous ""I"" in Ephrem and the Later Syriac Tradition 113

6 Praying: Human-Divine Reflexivity in John of Dalyatha and the Medieval Middle East 140

Epilogue 166

Acknowledgments 179

Notes 181

Index 219