Authors on Authors – In Selected Biographical– Novels–About–Writers

Robert Kusek author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Wydawnictwo

Published:1st May '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Authors on Authors – In Selected Biographical– Novels–About–Writers cover

Among many types of life-writing genres that recently have not only become central to contemporary academic discourse, but also attracted wide readership, the biographical novel deserves special attention. Authors on Authors examines biographical-novel-about-a-writer--a sub-genre of biographical novel which takes a real writer and his/her life story as the subject matter for imaginative exploration. The study identifies all the major examples of the genre written in English between 1990 and 2010, while discussing a variety of approaches and methods used by contemporary authors in rewriting the lives of other authors. An original taxonomy of the genre based on Gerard Genette's Palimpsests is introduced in this work, following a claim that life and, consequently, life-writing are derivational practices and as such are inherently intertextual and ontologically palimpsestuous. Seen as the most representative and accomplished achievements of the genre, four specific attempts at a biographical-novel-about-a-writer ( Author, Author by David Lodge, The Master by Colm Toibin, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and The Master of Petersburg by J.M. Coetzee) are singled out for an in-depth analysis in this multi-dimensional study which works dialectically across the borders of history, biography, literary criticism, philosophy, and textual analysis.

The work is an ambitious attempt to tackle the important and current topic of theoretical, historical, and literary criticism. In accordance with the promise made in the title, the author discusses the selection of biographical novels and classifies different variations, based on theoretical thought. -- Miroslawa Buchholtz, Professor of English and Director of the English Department at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.

ISBN: 9788323333807

Dimensions: 235mm x 165mm x 9mm

Weight: 286g

169 pages