 |
|
|
Item Details
| Title:
|
CHARACTER AND CONVERSION IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
AUGUSTINE, MONTAIGNE, DESCARTES, ROUSSEAU, AND SARTRE |
| By: |
Patrick Riley |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
|
£44.95 |
|
We believe that this item is permanently unavailable, and so we cannot source
it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ISBN 10: |
0813922925 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780813922928 |
| Publisher: |
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
31 October, 2004 |
| Pages: |
256 |
| Description: |
Challenging predominant theories of subjectivity in autobiography studies, 'Character and Conversion in Autobiography' recognises subjectivity as a dynamic process and suggests a redefinition of how we examine character and life writing. |
| Synopsis: |
What happens, asks Patrick Riley, when a life transformed becomes an autobiography? What is the relationship between the subjective upheaval of conversion and the representation of character? Who, then, is this "self" writing the life narrative? Thinking of conversion as a radical turning point or fulcrum on which incompatible configurations of character are precariously balanced, Riley examines both historically and tropologically the paradoxes of identity and life writing that conversion raises. While conversion can motivate the writing of an autobiography that ties together threads of a life story, it also implies a fragmentation of character. As it creates a unified framework for the subject's history, it also disrupts any stable conception of the self. Beginning with Augustine's Confessions as the canonical model of religious conversion, the author investigates the changing forms of conversion in selected works by Montaigne and Descartes, culminating in reformulations by Rousseau and Sartre.Moving from a purely religious rebirth to works grounded in a personal philosophy or aesthetic vocation, the autobiographies considered in this book stand as episodes in a genealogy of conversion. Riley argues that the metamorphoses of character inherent to conversion disrupt any interpretation or even representation of the self as static. It is no longer clear that the narrator represents the subject in any but a nominal way. In fact, Riley contends, the subject of an autobiography can never be self-identical. Challenging predominant theories of subjectivity in autobiography studies, Character and Conversion in Autobiography recognizes subjectivity as a dynamic process and suggests a redefinition of how we examine character and life writing. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
University of Virginia Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
|
|
|
 |
Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr
A celebratory, inclusive and educational exploration of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr for both children that celebrate and children who want to understand and appreciate their peers who do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|