Narrating the Self through the Other: On the Thought of Adriana Cavarero

Abstract

This essay focuses on Cavarero’s understanding of identity as relational. It relies on Arendt’s crucial distinction between “who” and “what,” the former capturing the uniqueness of each by exposing the embodied and deeply relational vulnerability; the latter relying on a self-delimited, self-sufficient and independent self. Cavarero central idea is that only by shifting from a metaphysical discourse of the universal to the narration of a story, can one recover the multifaceted yet unrepeatable uniqueness of who one is. This essay shows that in her later work, such as <em>Tu che mi guardi, tu che mi racconti</em>, (<em>Relating Narratives</em> in the English translation), Cavarero’s position on the subject takes a more radical turn, one that advocates for an alternative discourse to the universal philosophical language, for the sake of expressing the uniqueness and irreducibility of the self.