Traditional autobiography tends to originate in some form of crisis and to develop some form of resolution. In contrast, much contemporary autobiography deals with unresolved crises and cannot even assume authoritative, first-person narration. Susanna Egan finds such autobiographies dialogic in form, involving the reader in generic experimentation in their pursuit of shifting, uncertain meanings. After tracing the literary experimentation of contemporary genres to the inventiveness of modernism, she explores the generic contributions of drama, film, quilting, comics, and blended literary...

Egan asks why autobiographers use patterns -- such as myths of paradise and paradise lost, the journey, conversion, and confession -- taken from fiction to express personal experiences. She suggests that these stages of the written life derive from psychological imperatives that determine how the self and the world are perceived. She examines the autobiographical works of Rousseau, Wordsworth, George Moore, and Thomas Carlyle and the writings of William Hale White, De Quincey, and John Stuart Mill.

Originally published in 1984.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press...

Autobiographical impostures, once they come to light, appear to us as outrageous, scandalous. They confuse lived and textual identity (the person in the world and the character in the text) and call into question what we believe, what we doubt, and how we receive information. In the process, they tell us a lot about cultural norms and anxieties. Burdens of Proof: Faith, Doubt, and Identity in Autobiography examines a broad range of impostures in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and asks about each one: Why this particular imposture? Why here and now?

Susanna Egan's...