Publication

2015-09-02 - Palgrave Macmillan

Language

English

Word Count

41,250 words, Guess

Page Count

165 pages

Physical Format

Hardcover

Identifiers

  • ISBN-101137549572
  • ISBN-139781137549570
  • Library of Congress Control Number2015017423
  • OCLC Control Number909321153
  • Better World Books9781137549570
and 1 more

Classifications

  • LCCPR756.B56 B48 2015
  • LCCPN3311-PN3503PN441-P

Description

Drawing upon a wide range of biographies of literary subjects, from Shakespeare and Wordsworth to William Golding and V.S. Naipaul, this book develops a poetics of literary biography based on the triangular relationships of lives, works and times and how narrative operates in holding them together. Biography is seen as a hybrid genre in which historical and fictional elements are imaginatively combined. It considers the roles of story-telling, factual data in the art of life-writing, and the literariness of its language. It includes a case study of the biography of Ellen Terry, discussion of the controversial relationship between a subject's life and works, 'biographical criticism' and, through the issue of gender, the social and cultural changes biographies reflect. It frames a poetics on the basis of its strategy and tactics and demonstrates how the literal truth of verifiable data and the poetic truth of what is narrated are interdependent.

Description

"Drawing upon a wide range of biographies of literary subjects, from Shakespeare and Wordsworth to William Golding and V.S. Naipaul, this book develops a poetics of literary biography based on the triangular relationships of lives, works and times and how narrative operates in holding them together. Biography is seen as a hybrid genre in which historical and fictional elements are imaginatively combined. It considers the roles of story-telling, factual data in the art of life-writing, and the literariness of its language. It includes a case study of the biography of Ellen Terry, discussion of the controversial relationship between a subject's life and works, 'biographical criticism' and, through the issue of gender, the social and cultural changes biographies reflect. It frames a poetics on the basis of its strategy and tactics and demonstrates how the literal truth of verifiable data and the poetic truth of what is narrated are interdependent"--

Subjects

Other Editions

  • Towards a Poetics of Literary BiographyHardcoverPalgrave Macmillan2015-09-02

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