............................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter One: Narrative Encounters ................................................................................................... 21 What is Narrative? ......................................................................................................................... 21 Narrative as Self on a Temporal Plane: Character and Keeping One’s Word ............................... 25 Narrative as Giving an Account of Oneself ................................................................................... 27 Narrative Gaps and Strangeness .................................................................................................... 32 Narrative as a Space of Encounter with the Other ......................................................................... 36 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter Two: Lonely Selves and Lonely Others .............................................................................. 41 Strangeness of Self as Body ........................................................................................................... 43 Strangeness of Space ...................................................................................................................... 49 Strangeness of Self ......................................................................................................................... 54 Strangeness of Self-And-Other ...................................................................................................... 56 Self as Conscience ......................................................................................................................... 60 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Chapter Three: Recognition and its Redemption ............................................................................... 64 Identifying and distinguishing ....................................................................................................... 66 Redemption for Strange Selves in Understanding ......................................................................... 70 Naming as Recognition .................................................................................................................. 75 Recognition as Given, as Gift ........................................................................................................ 80 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 88 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 90 Strangeness in Literature ................................................................................................................ 90 Strangeness in Selves ..................................................................................................................... 92 Reconciliation in Recognition ........................................................................................................ 93 The Question of God ...................................................................................................................... 96 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za