| Too Far for Comfort: A Study on Biographical Distance Contributor(s): Tekcan, Rana (Author) |
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ISBN: 3838207351 ISBN-13: 9783838207353 Publisher: Ibidem Press OUR PRICE: $38.61 Product Type: Paperback Published: August 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory |
| Dewey: 809 |
| Series: Studies in English Literatures |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.8" W x 8.1" (0.45 lbs) 186 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The dynamic between the biographer and the subject is one of the most fascinating aspects of biography as a genre. How does the biographer stage the illusion that is the narrative life, the illusion that the subject assumes a living form through words? In contrast to purely fictional forms, biography writing does not allow total freedom to the biographer in this creative act. Ideally, a biography's backbone is structured by accurate historical facts. But its spirit lies elsewhere. Rana Tekcan explores how some of the most accomplished biographers manage to recreate "life" across time and space. She looks at their illusionary art through the narrative strategies in Samuel Johnson's Life of Savage, James Boswell's Life of Johnson, Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, Michael Holroyd's Lytton Strachey, Park Honan's Jane Austen, and Andrew Motion's Keats. She notes three types of distance in biographical narrative: First, where the biographer and the subject personally know one another; second, where the biographer is a near contemporary of the subject; and third, where biographer and subject are distinctly separated, in some cases, by hundreds of years. |