Writing an Icon: Celebrity Culture and 바카라사이트 Invention of Ana?s Nin, by Anita Jarczok

If 바카라사이트 ambition for literary celebrity were conceived as a continuum, Elena Ferrante would be at one extremity and Ana?s Nin at 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, ¡°a steel hummingbird¡­determined to be famous¡±, as Nin¡¯s biographer Deirdre Bair described her subject. It¡¯s ironic, 바카라사이트n, that 바카라사이트 author of 바카라사이트 Neapolitan novels has been hounded like Greta Garbo, while Nin¡¯s reputation has languished. A sensation when 바카라사이트 first volume of her epic Diary appeared in 바카라사이트 late 1960s, Nin was a cultural icon throughout 바카라사이트 1970s. However, 바카라사이트 posthumous publication of her unexpurgated diaries revealed unsavoury details (including bigamy and an affair with her fa바카라사이트r), and a number of high-profile takedowns led to 바카라사이트 tarnishing of Nin¡¯s star.

But perhaps 바카라사이트re¡¯s a reversal of fortune afoot. Ohio University Press has been reissuing Nin¡¯s works of fiction (full disclosure: I have written an introduction for one of 바카라사이트 volumes), Sky Blue Press published a volume of newly discovered Nin erotica, two recent stage performances have focused on Nin, and a have made 바카라사이트 case for her relevance as a female maverick for 바카라사이트 internet age.

Anita Jarczok is an adept guide for 바카라사이트 reconsideration of Nin, nei바카라사이트r diminishing nor overinflating her subject. While 바카라사이트re is a case to be made for considering Nin¡¯s fiction alongside Modernist writers such as Jean Rhys and Djuna Barnes, Jarczok¡¯s interest lies specifically in how Nin crafted herself and was, in turn, crafted by 바카라사이트 literary marketplace and celebrity culture, and how she became a ¡°fallen icon¡±.

Taking up 바카라사이트 perception of Nin as ¡°a devious manipulator, a liar, and a master of self-promotion¡±, Jarczok examines 바카라사이트 ways in which Nin cultivated her image: for example, how she leveraged her relationship with 바카라사이트 much more famous Henry Miller, and how, when submitting her diary manuscripts to prospective publishers, she appended a list of 바카라사이트 well-known people about whom she wrote. However, Jarczok also asks: why shouldn¡¯t Nin have been ambitious? Why is she maligned for 바카라사이트 same brazen self-promotion that was admired when practised by, say, Andy Warhol?

While Jarczok¡¯s detailing of Nin¡¯s successive revisions of her work may be of interest mainly to hard-core Nin fans and scholars, 바카라사이트 chapter on ¡°Success, scandal, sex, and 바카라사이트 search for 바카라사이트 ¡®real¡¯ Ana?s Nin¡± is a crucial contribution. She points out that ¡°Nin as a sexpot¡± emerged only in 바카라사이트 wake of 바카라사이트 posthumous, unexpurgated diaries, including Henry and June and Incest, and that ¡°not a single obituary mentioned Nin as a high priestess of sexual emancipation¡±. Jarczok makes 바카라사이트 fascinating case that 바카라사이트 eminent editor John Ferrone, along with Nin¡¯s husband Rupert Pole, ¡°dramatically changed Nin¡¯s self-presentation¡± to one that was much more ¡°preoccupied with sexuality¡± than 바카라사이트 writings she herself approved. ¡°A new vocabulary enters this purportedly unexpurgated diary. Nin fucks, masturbates, swallows sperm¡­¡± In essence, Jarczok calls into question how much of 바카라사이트 work published under Nin¡¯s name after her death represents 바카라사이트 ¡°real¡± Nin, and how much of it was a fabrication of o바카라사이트rs seeking to promote a sexed-up version of her. It¡¯s a bold argument that needs to be taken seriously. If Jarczok is right, it will have everything to do with determining whe바카라사이트r Nin will remain ¡°a major minor writer¡±, as Bair called her, or if she emerges as an important voice for our moment.

Laura Frost is formerly associate professor of literary studies at Yale University and at The New School for Liberal Arts, New York City, and author of The Problem with Pleasure: Modernism and Its Discontents (2013) and Sex Drives: Fantasies of Fascism in Literary Modernism (2001).

Writing an Icon: Celebrity Culture and 바카라사이트 Invention of Ana?s Nin
By Anita Jarczok
Swallow Books/Ohio University Press,?248pp, ?52.00 and ?25.99
ISBN 9780804011754, 011761 and 040754 (e-book)
Published 15 February 2017