The Limits of Autobiography
Trauma and Testimony
Published on 15. July 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
186 pages
978-1-5017-7077-7 (ISBN)
Description
In The Limits of Autobiography, Leigh Gilmore analyzes texts that depict trauma by combining elements of autobiography, fiction, biography, history, and theory in ways that challenge the constraints of autobiography. Astute and compelling readings of works by Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Dorothy Allison, Mikal Gilmore, Jamaica Kincaid, and Jeanette Winterson explore how each poses the questions "How have I lived?" and "How will I live?" in relation to the social and psychic forms within which trauma emerges.
First published in 2001, this new edition of one of the foundational texts in trauma studies includes a new preface by the author that assesses the gravitational pull between life writing and trauma in the twenty-first century, a tension that continues to produce innovative and artful means of confronting kinship, violence, and self-representation.
First published in 2001, this new edition of one of the foundational texts in trauma studies includes a new preface by the author that assesses the gravitational pull between life writing and trauma in the twenty-first century, a tension that continues to produce innovative and artful means of confronting kinship, violence, and self-representation.
Reviews / Votes
Leigh Gilmore's The Limits of Autobiography is a fine addition to the body of work in trauma studies, and is highly recommended for all working in the mental health disciplines. The book is a rich cornucopia of literary and psychological analyses, theoretical sophistication, and interdisciplinary connectedness; these treasures can only be suggested here.(Metapsychology Online Review) Through theoretically nuanced, lucid, and insightful readings, Gilmore demonstrates the ability of narrative to transform trauma, to speak to a certain truth about the relationship between trauma and identity that goes beyond the exigencies of accuracy and objectivity that pertain to a juridical contact. Any reader interested in the myriad interpenetrations of violence, the law, identity, family, and life writing will find much to admire in this impressive study.
(Biography) Gilmore offers astute and compelling commentaries in relation to the social and psychic forms within which selected autobiographers told their personal stories in literate and unconventional ways. Informative, thought-provoking chapters comprise this unique and highly recommended contribution to the literary study of the autobiography.
(The Bookwatch)
More details
Edition
with a new preface
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-7077-7 (9781501770777)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2023
Cornell University Press
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Leigh Gilmore is the author of several books, including The #MeToo Effect, Tainted Witness, and (with Elizabeth Marshall) Witnessing Girlhood. Her public feminist scholarship appears in The Conversation, Public Books, and WBUR's Cognoscenti.
Content
Introduction: The Limits of Autobiography
1. Represent Yourself
2. Bastard Testimony: Illegitimacy and Incest in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina
3. There Will Always Be a Father: Transference and the Auto/biographical Demand in Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart
4. There Will Always Be a Mother: Jamaica Kincaid's Serial Autobiography
5. Without Names: An Anatomy of Absence in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body
Conclusion: The Knowing Subject and an Alternative Jurisprudence of Trauma
1. Represent Yourself
2. Bastard Testimony: Illegitimacy and Incest in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina
3. There Will Always Be a Father: Transference and the Auto/biographical Demand in Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart
4. There Will Always Be a Mother: Jamaica Kincaid's Serial Autobiography
5. Without Names: An Anatomy of Absence in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body
Conclusion: The Knowing Subject and an Alternative Jurisprudence of Trauma