Authors on authors
In selected biographical-novels-about-writers
Pages: 169
Book format: B5
Publication date: 2012
Publication date: 25.10.2012
Book description
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 Tóibín, 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.
Robert Kusek is a lecturer in the Institute of English Philology at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, as well as culture manager, editor and translator. He graduated with honours from the Institute of English Philology and the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. In 2011 he completed his doctoral thesis on biographical-novel-about-a-writer. His research interests include life-writing, poetics of memory and loss, the Holocaust and its representation in culture, postcolonialism and media. He is also active in intercultural dialogue and holds the position of the Polish Coordinator of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow.
Authors
Robert Kusek
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Authors on authors
In selected biographical-novels-about-writers
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction. The Age of Authors, the Age of Biography 11
Chapter One. Biographical-Novel-about-a-Writer – the Genre and Its Hybridity 25
1.1. A Biographical Novel: towards a Definition of the Genre 25
1.2. Hybridity of Biographical Novel: on the Palimpsestuous Nature of the Genre 30
1.2.1. Pastiche 32
1.2.2. Forgery 33
1.2.3. Unfaithful Continuation or Supplement 35
1.2.4. Transposition 36
1.2.4.1. Translation 37
1.2.4.1.1. Translation Simple 38
1.2.4.2. Augmentation/Excision 39
1.2.4.3. Thematic Transformations (Semantic, Diegetic, Pragmatic) 43
1.2.4.4. Transmotivation 47
1.2.4.5. Transvaluation 49
Chapter Two. The Many Lives of Henry James 53
2.1. Time and Spirit 53
2.2. Lost in Translation 57
2.3. The Story Won’t Tell 94
Chapter Three. Versions of Virginia Woolf: ‘No More False than They Are True’? 97
3.1. Truth and Falsity of Life-Writing 97
3.2. Stories Re-Told, Lives Re-Lived 100
3.3. ‘There Are Some Stories that Have to Be Retold by Each Generation’ 122
Chapter Four. J.M. Coetzee and the Labyrinth of Life-Writing 127
4.1. Authority and Fiction 127
4.2. Rewriting Lives, Retelling Stories 128
4.3. Age of Iron, Age of Disguise 141
4.4. Writing the Other, Writing the Self 150
4.5. The Double .. 161
Conclusion: Et après? 165
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction. The Age of Authors, the Age of Biography 11
Chapter One. Biographical-Novel-about-a-Writer – the Genre and Its Hybridity 25
1.1. A Biographical Novel: towards a Definition of the Genre 25
1.2. Hybridity of Biographical Novel: on the Palimpsestuous Nature of the Genre 30
1.2.1. Pastiche 32
1.2.2. Forgery 33
1.2.3. Unfaithful Continuation or Supplement 35
1.2.4. Transposition 36
1.2.4.1. Translation 37
1.2.4.1.1. Translation Simple 38
1.2.4.2. Augmentation/Excision 39
1.2.4.3. Thematic Transformations (Semantic, Diegetic, Pragmatic) 43
1.2.4.4. Transmotivation 47
1.2.4.5. Transvaluation 49
Chapter Two. The Many Lives of Henry James 53
2.1. Time and Spirit 53
2.2. Lost in Translation 57
2.3. The Story Won’t Tell 94
Chapter Three. Versions of Virginia Woolf: ‘No More False than They Are True’? 97
3.1. Truth and Falsity of Life-Writing 97
3.2. Stories Re-Told, Lives Re-Lived 100
3.3. ‘There Are Some Stories that Have to Be Retold by Each Generation’ 122
Chapter Four. J.M. Coetzee and the Labyrinth of Life-Writing 127
4.1. Authority and Fiction 127
4.2. Rewriting Lives, Retelling Stories 128
4.3. Age of Iron, Age of Disguise 141
4.4. Writing the Other, Writing the Self 150
4.5. The Double .. 161
Conclusion: Et après? 165
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction. The Age of Authors, the Age of Biography 11
Chapter One. Biographical-Novel-about-a-Writer – the Genre and Its Hybridity 25
1.1. A Biographical Novel: towards a Definition of the Genre 25
1.2. Hybridity of Biographical Novel: on the Palimpsestuous Nature of the Genre 30
1.2.1. Pastiche 32
1.2.2. Forgery 33
1.2.3. Unfaithful Continuation or Supplement 35
1.2.4. Transposition 36
1.2.4.1. Translation 37
1.2.4.1.1. Translation Simple 38
1.2.4.2. Augmentation/Excision 39
1.2.4.3. Thematic Transformations (Semantic, Diegetic, Pragmatic) 43
1.2.4.4. Transmotivation 47
1.2.4.5. Transvaluation 49
Chapter Two. The Many Lives of Henry James 53
2.1. Time and Spirit 53
2.2. Lost in Translation 57
2.3. The Story Won’t Tell 94
Chapter Three. Versions of Virginia Woolf: ‘No More False than They Are True’? 97
3.1. Truth and Falsity of Life-Writing 97
3.2. Stories Re-Told, Lives Re-Lived 100
3.3. ‘There Are Some Stories that Have to Be Retold by Each Generation’ 122
Chapter Four. J.M. Coetzee and the Labyrinth of Life-Writing 127
4.1. Authority and Fiction 127
4.2. Rewriting Lives, Retelling Stories 128
4.3. Age of Iron, Age of Disguise 141
4.4. Writing the Other, Writing the Self 150
4.5. The Double .. 161
Conclusion: Et après? 165
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction. The Age of Authors, the Age of Biography 11
Chapter One. Biographical-Novel-about-a-Writer – the Genre and Its Hybridity 25
1.1. A Biographical Novel: towards a Definition of the Genre 25
1.2. Hybridity of Biographical Novel: on the Palimpsestuous Nature of the Genre 30
1.2.1. Pastiche 32
1.2.2. Forgery 33
1.2.3. Unfaithful Continuation or Supplement 35
1.2.4. Transposition 36
1.2.4.1. Translation 37
1.2.4.1.1. Translation Simple 38
1.2.4.2. Augmentation/Excision 39
1.2.4.3. Thematic Transformations (Semantic, Diegetic, Pragmatic) 43
1.2.4.4. Transmotivation 47
1.2.4.5. Transvaluation 49
Chapter Two. The Many Lives of Henry James 53
2.1. Time and Spirit 53
2.2. Lost in Translation 57
2.3. The Story Won’t Tell 94
Chapter Three. Versions of Virginia Woolf: ‘No More False than They Are True’? 97
3.1. Truth and Falsity of Life-Writing 97
3.2. Stories Re-Told, Lives Re-Lived 100
3.3. ‘There Are Some Stories that Have to Be Retold by Each Generation’ 122
Chapter Four. J.M. Coetzee and the Labyrinth of Life-Writing 127
4.1. Authority and Fiction 127
4.2. Rewriting Lives, Retelling Stories 128
4.3. Age of Iron, Age of Disguise 141
4.4. Writing the Other, Writing the Self 150
4.5. The Double .. 161
Conclusion: Et après? 165
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