Writing and Reality: A Study of Modern British Diary Fiction

(Hardback)

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The diary format has long been utilised by novelists as a means of imparting reality to fiction. This volume analyses the forms of diary fiction employed by a range of British writers in the post-World War II period. It provides new commentaries on the work in this genre of major fiction writers such as William Golding, Doris Lessing, John Fowles and Malcolm Lowry and introduces the work of a number of less familiar novelists like Eva Figes, Ann Quin, Emma Tennant and Rayner Heppenstall. These writers have all used self-conscious diary fiction to explore the relationship between their writing and the reality it aims to represent. "Writing and Reality" outlines the ways in which such work as a whole challenges the dominant cultural values of contemporary Britain. The book begins by considering the context of this writing and proceeds to examine the textual strategies that distinguish the diary novel. It looks in depth at normative attempts to define the diary novel and considers the relationship between the non-fiction diary and its fictional counterpart. Later chapters analyse the texts according to specific issues arising from the fiction, including factuality, history, autobiography and gender. The volume includes a comprehensive primary and secondary bibliography of the subject with supplementary listings of works by and about eight of the novelists whose work has received little serious critical attention. This study should be of interest and value to scholars researching forms and genres of fiction, autobiographical writing and contemporary British novelists.

Reviews

Scholars and teachers will find Hassam's study valuable in discussions of narrative issues involving "facticity, history, autobiography, and gender." His bibliography of secondary sources is also helpful.-Choice
"Scholars and teachers will find Hassam's study valuable in discussions of narrative issues involving "facticity, history, autobiography, and gender." His bibliography of secondary sources is also helpful."-Choice

Author Bio

ANDREW HASSAM is a lecturer in English at Trinity College, Carmarthen, Wales. He currently holds a visiting research fellowship at the National Library in Canberra, Australia. He has published scholarly articles in journals in Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States, as well as short stories in literary magazines. Hassam is presently at work on a reference companion to an international representation of diary fiction.