Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own

ISBN-13: 9781138057395 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 114 str.

Clara Oropeza (Santa Barbara City Colleg

Opis

Anais Nin: A Myth of Her Own traces Nin's literary craft by following the intimacy of self-exploration and poetic expression attained in the details of the quotidian, transfigured into fiction. By digging into the mythic tropes that permeate both her literary diaries and fiction, this book demonstrates that Nin constructed a mythic method of her own, revealing the extensive possibilities of an opulent feminine psyche. Clara Oropeza demonstrates that the literary diary, for Nin, is a genre that with its traces of trickster archetype, among others, reveals a mercurial, yet particular understanding of an embodied and at times mystical experience of a writer. The cogent analysis of Nin's fiction alongside the posthumously published unexpurgated diaries, within the backdrop of emerging psychological theories, further illuminates Nin's contributions as an experimental and important modernist writer whose daring and poetic voice has not been fully appreciated. By extending research on diary writing and anchoring Nin's literary style within modernist traditions, this book contributes to the redefinition of what literary modernism was comprised, who participated and how it was defined. Anais Nin: A Myth of Her Own is unique in its interdisciplinary expansion of literature, literary theory, mythological studies and depth psychology. By considering the ecocritical aspects of Nin's writing, this book forges a new paradigm for not only Nin's work, but for critical discussions of self-life writing as a valid epistemological and aesthetic form. This impressive work will be of great interest to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, literary studies, cultural studies, mythological studies and women's studies.

Spis treści

Preface: Tracing the Faces of Life, Creativity and Literature Chapter 1: Anaïs Nin: Self Life Writing, Myth and Literature Chapter 2: Anaïs Nin’s Expurgated Diaries Volume 1 (1931-1934) and 2 (1934-1939): Modernism and Myth Chapter 3: Risks and Tricks in the Myth of the Diarist Chapter 4: (Un)veiling Incest: The Early Diary of Anais Nin, Volume 4 and Incest: From a Journal of Love Chapter 5: The Literary Credo of a Diarist/Novelist as traced in Incest: From a Journal of Love and Winter of Artifice Chapter 6: Myth, Monsters and Art: The Labyrinths of Nin’s Seduction of the Minotaur Epilogue: Tending Self and Nature: Eco-minded Writing and Communitas

O autorze

Clara Oropeza is Professor of English Composition and Literature at Santa Barbara City College, California, USA. Her research brings comparative mythology to literary studies and cultural theory. She is the author of several essays, most recent The (Mal)Creation of Food the Monsanto Way: Returning a Mythic Sensitivity to Food Production. She received her BA and MA in English Literature from California State University, Los Angeles and her PhD in Comparative Mythology and Literature from Pacifica Graduate Institute.