Inter-Generic Negotiations of Autofiction, Memory and History in Doris Lessing’s Under My Skin

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Assistant Lecturer, British University in Egypt (BUE)

المستخلص

In this paper, I attempt to investigate the compelling conceptions of Life- Writing‘s generic identity developing from the intersection of the modes of Autofiction, History and Memory in British writer Doris Lessing‘s Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography to 1949 (1994). I claim that the text is a ‗hybrid‘ one that interweaves three modes of writing: autofictional, historiographical and memory-oriented. I will deal with reading Under My Skin in light of the emerging Autofiction theory, by exploring the concept of ‗autofiction,‘ not only as a standalone genre, but also as an emerging writing technique. With the hypothesis of Genre being fluid and dynamic, and a flexible canvas that allows its fixities to be demarcated and shifted, the expansion of focus from Autobiography to Autofiction will allow for an examination of History, Truth, Fiction, and Memory, in relation to the generic identity of the text. A careful reassessment of the status of official and ‗fictionalized‘ accounts of the past in the text will be investigated, especially the ‗personal‘ stories of the impact of colonization and Empire, familial crises as well as personal learning journeys on Lessing‘s self-referential writing. This probes the important question of how the fictional, autobiographical and autofictional reflect, directly and indirectly, aspects of Life-Writing.

الكلمات الرئيسية

الموضوعات الرئيسية

المراجع

Anderson, Linda. Autobiography. Routledge, 2011.
Cichon, Anna Izabela. “Family Album, Memory and Autobiography: Doris Lessing’s Under My Skin and Walking in the Shade”. Anglica Wratislaviensia 53, 2015.
Eakin, Jean Paul. Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative. Retrieved from Ebrary database, Cornell University Press, 2008. p. 106.  
 Elarem,       Hajer.    A    quest    for     selfhood:     Deconstructing       and
Reconstructing Female Identity in Doris Lessing’s Early Fiction. Université de Franche-Comté, 2015.
Erll, Astrid. “Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction”. A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, eds. Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, De Grutyer, Berlin, 2008, pp. 1-18. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Daymond, M. J. “Writing Autobiography and Writing Fiction.” Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African Auto/biography. Ed. Judith Lutge Coullie. USA: University of Hawaii Press, 2006.
Dix, Hywel. “Introduction: Autofiction in English: The Story so Far.” Autofiction in English, Ed. Hywel Dix. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Doubrovsky, Serge. Fils. Paris: Galilée, 1977.
Ferreira-Meyers, Karen. “Does Autofiction Belong to French Or
Francophone Authors and Readers Only?” Autofiction in English, Ed. Hywel Dix. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Leigh Gilmore. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women’s Self-
Representation. New York: Cornell University Press, 1994.p. 85.  
Lecarme, Jacques. “L’autofiction, Un Mauvais Genre?” Autofictions & Cie. Ed. Philippe Lejeune. Paris: RITM, 1993.
Lejeune, Philippe. “The Autobiographical Contract.” French Literary Theory Today. Ed. Tzvetan Todorov. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Lessing, Doris. Under My Skin. Harper Collins, New York, 1994.
________ “Writing Autobiography.” Time Bites: Views and Reviews. USA: Fourth Estate, LTD, 2004.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial Life-Writing: Culture, Politics, And Self-Representation. Routledge, 2009.
Neumann, Birgit. “The Literary Representation of Memory.” A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, eds. Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, De Grutyer, Berlin, 2008, pp. 333-344. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Saunders, Max. “Life-Writing, Cultural Memory, And Literary Studies.” A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An
International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, eds. Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, De Grutyer, Berlin, 2008, pp. 321-332. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life-Narratives. University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Watkins, Susan, et al. Doris Lessing: Border Crossings. Continuum, New York; London, 2009.
________ “Second World Life Writing: Doris Lessing's Under My Skin.” Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 42, no. 1, 2016, pp. 137-148.

ملفات

شارك

إرسال الاستشهاد إلى

الإحصائيات