Auto/Biographical Discourses: Criticism, Theory, Practice

(Paperback)

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In this critical study, the author explores autobiography as a genre and as an organizing concept in 19th- and 20th-century thought. Drawing on a wide range of writings, both literary and theoretical, she shows how autobiography and biography have been crucial in debates over subject and object, public and private, fact and fiction - debates now refigured in feminist theory. Autobiography has itself been perceived as an unstable and hybrid genre: it appears either as a dangerous double agent moving between these oppositions, or as an instrument of their reconciliation. This book explores the significance of the genre in eugenics and theories of "genius"; the "new biography" of Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf and others; autobiographical and historical consciousness of subjectivity and genre; as well as contemporary autobiographical writings and feminist theories of life writing.

Reviews

"[T]his is a scholarly and challenging work. Its depth of research, elegant argument and impressive grasp of detail will ensure it becomes a classic of autobiographical criticism." --"Times Higher Educational Supplement"
"Scholarly, and beautifully written, this is one of the most important books of the year." --"Studies in English Literature"

[T]his is a scholarly and challenging work. Its depth of research, elegant argument and impressive grasp of detail will ensure it becomes a classic of autobiographical criticism. "Times Higher Educational Supplement"
Scholarly, and beautifully written, this is one of the most important books of the year. "Studies in English Literature"

0;[T]his is a scholarly and challenging work. Its depth of research, elegant argument and impressive grasp of detail will ensure it becomes a classic of autobiographical criticism.1; 2;"Times Higher Educational Supplement"
0;Scholarly, and beautifully written, this is one of the most important books of the year.1; 2;"Studies in English Literature"

" [T]his is a scholarly and challenging work. Its depth of research, elegant argument and impressive grasp of detail will ensure it becomes a classic of autobiographical criticism." -- "Times Higher Educational Supplement"
" Scholarly, and beautifully written, this is one of the most important books of the year." -- "Studies in English Literature"

Author Bio

Laura Marcus is Lecturer in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London