Authentic artistry requires self-transcendence, which narcissism precludes

Evidence

For some, acting is a means of earning one’s living, a simple profession; for others, it is access to fame that will be exploited for amorous aims; for still others, the triumph of their narcissism; the greatest—Rachel, Eleonora Duse—are authentic artists who transcend themselves in the roles they create; the ham, by contrast, cares not for what she accomplishes but for the glory that will cascade over her; she seeks above all to put herself in the limelight. The stubborn narcissist will be as limited in art as in love because she does not know how to give herself. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1818

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines authentic art as self-transcendence and sharply separates it from narcissistic exhibition — a key Existentialist distinction.
• XREF: Mirrors Sartre’s bad faith/inwardness vocabulary and Beauvoir’s own immanence-transcendence apparatus. — connects to: For Nietzsche self-creation means making one’s life a coherent work of art — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 280; Moral authenticity requires renouncing possession and being, endlessly. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 317; Narcissism, romantic love, and mysticism are doomed attempts to transcend through immanence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1770 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-admiration prevents the self-forgetting that artistic transcendence demands. #corroborates (1.00)
• Female artists’ narcissism blocks genuine engagement with the world. #exemplifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1944
• Narcissism is an attachment to a technologically produced ego image. #expands (0.75)
• Narcissism’s demand for repeated recognition flattens the other into sameness. #expands (0.75) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 90
• Genuine artistic negation requires being saturated with tradition first #expands (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 165