Fiction and Autobiography

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 <I>Confessions of an English Opium Eater, </I>Thomas Hardy’s <I>A Pair of Blue Eyes, </I>Anaïs Nin’s diaries, General Sherman’s <I>Memoirs, </I>Abdelkébir Khatibi’s <I>L’Amour bilingue, </I>Nirad Chaudhuri’s <I>Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, </I>Helene Deutsch’s <I>Confrontations with Myself, </I>Sky Lee’s <I>Disappearing Moon Cafe, </I>Mary McCarthy’s <I>Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, </I>Graham Swift’s <I>The Light of Day, </I>Ian McEwan’s <I>Atonement, </I>A.S. Byatt’s <I>The Biographer’s Tale, </I>Richard Wright’s <I>Black Boy, </I>and Zora Neale Hurston’s <I>Dust Tracks on a Road.</I>