{"id":141546,"date":"2025-12-01T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=141546"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:53:23","slug":"pd-liquid-selves-empty-selves-a-qa-with-angela-franks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=141546","title":{"rendered":"(PD) Liquid Selves, Empty Selves: A Q&A with Angela Franks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this month\u2019s Q&A, contributing editor Serena Sigillito interviews Dr. Angela Franks about her new book, <\/em>Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serena Sigillito<\/strong>: I\u2019ve just finished reading your fascinating new book. Can you give PD <\/em>readers a brief description of the argument you make there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela Franks<\/strong>: Sure. I argue that our concern with the body is usually a smokescreen for deeper questions about identity. I try to show historically why and how identity became a problem for us\u2014why our culture is going through a systemic identity crisis. I try to show that this is not simply a new development, but it has its roots in phenomena that go back centuries, and even millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SS<\/strong>: You\u2019ve mentioned elsewhere that you were inspired, in part, to write this book by Carl Trueman\u2019s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> I found that a really helpful and thought-provoking comparison. My sense is that your book is more unabashedly academic than Carl\u2019s. Your book seems like it\u2019s aimed at the kind of people who write for places like Public Discourse, <\/em>who can then draw on your scholarly work and translate it into a more accessible register and help popularize the ideas you articulate. Does that seem right to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AF<\/strong>: Yes, I think that\u2019s accurate. I had already been working on my book when Carl\u2019s came out. We got to know each other pretty soon after that, and\u2014as I told him\u2014I was very relieved that his book was not making mine superfluous! I think Carl\u2019s book is primarily a work of translation, whereas mine is a more academic synthesis. One of the books that was really helpful to me was Charles Taylor\u2019s Sources of the Self<\/em><\/a>, as well as A Secular Age<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Those books are similar to what I\u2019m trying to do\u2014a work that\u2019s lengthier, with an abundant use of footnotes, that really gets into texts at a deeper level. The hope is that it shifts the scholarly discussion around identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

A great interview with @theologianmom<\/a> @PublicDiscourse<\/a> on her fine book on \u201cthe empty self.\u201d With @SerenaSigillito<\/a>.

It wasn\u2019t only secularism that \u201cliquified\u201d the body and emptied the self. Christianity played a large role too. What do we do with that?https:\/\/t.co\/y6RwYWeaqb<\/a><\/p>— Rachel Lu (@rclu) December 1, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>