Achieving Autobiographical Form ― A Twentieth Century Perspective

Drawing on the ideas of P. N. Furbank and Michel Foucault, this work examines patterns and structures of autobiographical writing. Chapter-length studies consider Reveries over Childhood and Youth by William Butler Yeats, and A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad, as well as three more recent literary autobiographies: Experience by Martin Amis; Not Entitled by Frank Kermode, and In the Blood by Andrew Motion. The final chapter examines the writing of South African poet Roy Campbell, Irish poet Richard Murphy, and South African novelist J. M. Coetzee’s autobiographical relationship with Samuel Beckett. Annotation c2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Nicholas Meihuizen is a Professor of English at North-West University, Potchefstroom campus, South Africa. He is author ofYeats and the Drama of Sacred Space (Rodopi, 1998), and Ordering Empire: The Poetry of Camoes, Pringle, and Campbell(Peter Lang, 2007).