One of the most radical conceptual shifts in postmodern debates about art has been the dismantlement of the very idea of a work of art, its unity and ontological status. The move from work to text has entailed far-reaching questions concerning the status and function of the artist or author, the role of interpretive communities, and the constitution of texts as intertexts. By concentrating on the author as reader, the present volume explores the process of writing in terms of textual visions and revisions undertaken by the author him- or herself. Tracing an...

Both the postmodern debate about the -death of the author- and cultural debates about constructing identities (national, socio-political, cultural, ethnic, sexual, etc.) have led to multiple attempts at redefining autobiography, traditionally predicated on concepts of identity and truth. By bringing together twenty-seven case studies of autobiographical texts from over four centuries and from a variety of cultural (mainly Anglophone) backgrounds, this book demonstrates how fruitful a critical focus on the interaction between autobiography and fiction proves for understanding the complex...