Fiction and Autobiography : Modes and Models of Interaction

Both the postmodern debate about the «death of the author» and cultural debates about constructing identities (national, socio-political, cultural, ethnic, sexual, etc.) have led to multiple attempts at redefining autobiography, traditionally predicated on concepts of identity and truth. By bringing together twenty-seven case studies of autobiographical texts from over four centuries and from a variety of cultural (mainly Anglophone) backgrounds, this book demonstrates how fruitful a critical focus on the interaction between autobiography and fiction proves for understanding the complex strategies by which subject positions are established and communicated. The texts examined include: De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes, Anaïs Nin’s diaries, General Sherman’s Memoirs, Abdelkébir Khatibi’s L’Amour bilingue, Nirad Chaudhuri’s Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Helene Deutsch’s Confrontations with Myself, Sky Lee’s Disappearing Moon Cafe, Mary McCarthy’s Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, Graham Swift’s The Light of Day, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, A.S. Byatt’s The Biographer’s Tale, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road.