ESC . (December ): xx–yy A ’ phenomenological insight to parse terms etymologically,¹ we find the following Greek roots when we read into the meaning of “autobiography”: auto- (oneself ) + bio- (life) + graphia (writing; from the verb graphein, to write). us, autobiography is the written story of one’s life, one’s life story. And yet, this act of “self”- writing frames “life” (bios) in such a way that the meaning of each term is obscured. “Life” interrupts the act of self-writing, exceeds it, even though the writing is about that life, and occurs within it, necessarily prior to that life’s completion. Is “life” here closer to the act of writing (graphein), closer to the sense of oneself (autos), or something else altogether escaping the autobiography that strives to contain or convey it? And will that “life” be legible?² Is it the case, as Heidegger maintains, that what is closest to us experientially is furthest from us intellectually, least susceptible to analysis The Autobiographical Self: Phenomenology and the Limits of Narrative Self-Possession in Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red Stuart J. Murray Ryerson University Philosophic Problems. “I will never know how you see red and you will never know how I see it. But this separation of consciousness is recognized only after a failure of communication, and our first movement is to believe in an undivided being between us.” Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red Murray.indd 4/20/2007, 9:22 AM 1