Altered Egos by G Thomas Couser
This work is concerned with the `authority' of autobiography. Couser considers recent critiques of the notion of autobiography as issuing from, determined by, referring to a pre-existing self. He examines the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, P. T. Barnum, and Mark Twain and appraises the authority of autobiography in the rather different circumstances of the minority writer: in slave narratives, the Civil War diaries of Mary Chesnut, and contemporary works by Richard Rodriguez and Maxine Hong Kingston. The work treats autobiographical writing as a struggle for literary control over the life of the author, against the constraints of genre, language, and society.
'Altered Egos is a rewarding book with insights about authority, not just in individual texts and authors, but in the genre itself' Carol J. Singley, The American University, Prose Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, August 1992
Couser, G. Thomas: - G. Thomas Couser is Professor of English at Hofstra University and the author of Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing; Altered Egos: Authority in American Autobiography; and American Autobiography: The Prophetic Mode.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780195058338 |
| ISBN 10 | 019505833X |
| Title | Altered Egos |
| Author | G Thomas Couser |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 1989-12-14 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |