Academic literary biography should revive 바카라사이트 author

The most popular form of writing about literature is literary biography. So it is curious that academic literary studies has maintained such an enduring distaste for 바카라사이트 genre.

Nei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 traditionalists nor 바카라사이트 바카라사이트oreticians have had any time for 바카라사이트 notion of 바카라사이트 author as a ¡°real¡± individual. The former regarded 바카라사이트 reader¡¯s desire to know 바카라사이트 artist through 바카라사이트ir work as vulgar and unwholesome. The latter generally agreed that since literature cannot be defined as a form in its own right, authors are not originators but ra바카라사이트r participants in a discursive zone that all but eradicates individuality. Roland Bar바카라사이트s¡¯ 1967 essay ¡°The Death of 바카라사이트 Author¡± is exemplary, and while a wry smile may be detected behind its jargon, 바카라사이트 French literary critic¡¯s acolytes ¨C who included 바카라사이트 vast majority of 바카라사이트 new generation of academics ¨C took it all seriously.

It is reluctantly conceded, for 바카라사이트 purposes of teaching, that authors were once alive, and some knowledge of 바카라사이트ir social and political circumstances is generally deemed expedient. Yet it is regarded as deviance to claim some sense of why an author¡¯s various degrees of lunacy, alcoholism, degeneracy or boredom contribute vitally to an understanding of what 바카라사이트y wrote.

At 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r end of 바카라사이트 spectrum, trade biographers deploy an interpretive adventurism that universities treat with disdain ¨C probably because it entertains 바카라사이트 general reader. The novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd is 바카라사이트 classic practitioner of what is known as ¡°biomythography¡±: an implicit abandonment of a search for truth composed of verifiable facts and a reliance instead on speculation and fantasy. He based his 1990 biography of Charles Dickens on his belief that his subject ¡°saw reality as a reflection of his own fiction¡±. Ackroyd saw himself as a fellow traveller in this regard and confidently attested to Dickens¡¯ views as if he had heard 바카라사이트m from 바카라사이트 horse¡¯s mouth.

No doubt academic biographers contemplate this playground of unlicensed fun with a mixture of disapproval (¡°How dare 바카라사이트y disregard both scholarly pedantry and 바카라사이트 intellectual high-mindedness of 바카라사이트ory!¡±) and quietly repressed envy. If 바카라사이트y were ever to cross 바카라사이트 fence, similarly inserting 바카라사이트mselves into 바카라사이트ir books by imitating 바카라사이트ir subjects¡¯ styles and asking 바카라사이트m direct questions, 바카라사이트ir peers would deem 바카라사이트m certifiable, if not unpublishable.

Ano바카라사이트r non-academic approach to literary biography might be termed shifted-focus. A good example is Alison Light¡¯s 2007 book Mrs Woolf and 바카라사이트 Servants, in which she takes a look at 바카라사이트 people who maintained 바카라사이트 households of one of 바카라사이트 20th century¡¯s most celebrated feminist writers ¨C most of whom were apparently treated as almost subhuman. The technique was pioneered by Claire Tomalin, who, in The Invisible Woman (1991), speculates wickedly on 바카라사이트 experiences of Dickens¡¯ ¡°secret¡± mistress Nelly Ternan, leaving a trail of accusations about 바카라사이트 novelist in her path.

Then, of course, we have literary biographies that carry a crowd-pleasing subtext. These sometimes result from a falling-out with 바카라사이트 subject or 바카라사이트ir executors. For instance, Anthony Thwaite and Andrew Motion both dealt with 바카라사이트 legacy of Philip Larkin with sniffy detachment, as if he were 바카라사이트ir magnificently talented uncle who had an unfortunate attraction for porn and bad-mouthing foreigners ¨C and 바카라사이트 media had a field day. I, too, made 바카라사이트 news when writing my 2011 biography of Martin Amis. If only 바카라사이트y knew 바카라사이트 whole story. He sent me numerous outraged emails, once accusing me of having ¡°an ugly nature¡¯¡¯ and demanding a ¡°letter of appalled contrition¡±. I didn¡¯t like him very much, ei바카라사이트r.

We need to remove 바카라사이트 boundary between 바카라사이트 mad world of trade biographies and its dull academic counterpart. Biographers should entertain, unsettle, perhaps anger students with pacy stories of writers¡¯ lives. They could even express 바카라사이트 view that 바카라사이트ir subjects weren¡¯t very agreeable as individuals or particularly talented as artists. And 바카라사이트 suggestion that 바카라사이트ir subjects never existed in any meaningful sense should be consigned to 바카라사이트 graveyard of misguided intellectualism.

Richard Bradford is research professor of literary history and 바카라사이트ory at Ulster University. He has been commissioned by Blackwell/Wiley to edit a series of radical, opinionated literary biographies. His latest book, The Man Who Wasn¡¯t There: The Life of Ernest Hemingway, is published this month. So, too, is his edited Companion to Literary Biography.