Fiction of Autobiography, The: Reading and Writing Identity

Writing autobiography is a complicated, often fraught activity for both writer and reader. We can find many recent examples of the way such writing calls into question the author's truthfulness or their authority to present as definitive their ‘version' of a particular event or portion of their lives. Drawing upon a wide range of late twentieth and early twenty-first-century autobiographical writing, The Fiction of Autobiography examines key aspects of autobiography from the interrelated perspectives of author, reader, critic and scholar, to reconsider how we view this form of writing, and its relationship to the way we understand and construct identity. Maftei considers recent cases and texts such as Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Frey's A Million Little Pieces alongside older texts such as Proust's In Search of Lost Time¸ Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. In part, this is to emphasise that key issues reappear and arise over decades and centuries, and that texts distanced by time can speak to each other thoughtfully and poignantly.

The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity

Literature & Fiction

Maftei, Micaela

History & Criticism

Bloomsbury USA Academic

Bloomsbury Academic

Writers of creative non-fiction are often expected to be able to recreate reality, to deal with, or even access, a singular truth. But the author, like any human, is not an automaton remotely tasked with capturing a life or an event.   Whether we tell stories and understand them as fiction or non-fiction, or whether we draw away from these classifications, writers craft and shape writing all writing. No experience exists on a flat plane, and recounting or interpreting events will always involve some element of artistic manipulation: every instance, exchange, discussion, event is open to multiple interpretations and can be described in many ways, all of which are potentially truthful.   Writing Creative Non-Fiction: Determining the Form contains essays and original writing from novelists, poets, songwriters, musicians and academics. The book covers topics that range from explorations of the role of the author, definitions and representations of the form, self and illness, to the spectral elements of non-fiction and its role in historical narratives. The essays included in this volume address everything from memoir, biography and autobiography to a discussion of musical approaches to criticism and a non/fiction interview.   The book identifies key writers including Christopher Isherwood, David Shields, James Frey, Åsne Seierstad, John D'Agata, W. G. Sebald, Jonathan Coe, Hilary Mantel, James Kelman, Liz Lochhead and Arthur Frank and is essential reading for students, researchers and writers of creative non-fiction.   Contents   Notes on Contributors   Pathways to Determining Form Laura Tansley and Micaela Maftei   A Bulgarian Journey Kapka Kassabova   At the Will of Our Stories John I MacArtney   She and I: Composite Characters in Creative Non-Fiction Katie Karnehm   More Lies Please: Biography and the Duty to Abandon Truth Rodge Glass   Ghosts of the Real: The Spectral Memoir Helen Pleasance   One doesn t have much but oneself : Christopher Isherwood s Investigation into Identity and the Manipulation of Form in The Memorial Rebecca Gordon Stewart   Menna, Martha and Me: The Possibilities of Epistolary Criticism Rhiannon Marks   An Introduction to Schizoanalysis : The Development of a Musical Approach to Criticism Jo Collinson Scott   Eyes! Birds! Walnuts! Pennies! Erin Soros   Just Words Erin Soros   It is in their Nature to Change: On Mis-leading Elizabeth Reeder   Index

Writing Creative Non-Fiction: Determining the Form (Fiction and Writing)

Reference

Tansley, Laura

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Gylphi

The Reach of a Root

Short Stories & Anthologies

Vagabond Voices

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Books by Maftei, Micaela