The Argentine tango, too, invokes nostalgia and self-exploration, Frankenberg said.

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The idea that works of literature hold personal clues, or that more grandly writing is an expression and exploration of the self, is a relatively recent phenomenon.

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Childhood is about self-exploration and identity building.

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The balance between self-direction, digital exploration, and maintaining productivity is indeed a delicate one.

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The new musical, a bubbly exploration of self-realization, friendship and evolution, ran during March and April last year at the Vineyard Theatre and the team hopes to further develop and license it.

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At once a confessional and a manifesto, Mr. Fischl's book, written with Michael Stone, will move readers with its tales of a fraught life in art, engage them with its fluent exploration of art-making and likely annoy quite a few with its self-absorption and bombastic pronouncements.

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