Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature

576 Pages·2010·4.6 MB·English

by  Max Saunders

SELF IMPRESSION
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Self Impression:
Life-Writing,
Autobiografiction, and
the Forms of Modern
Literature
MAX SAUNDERS
1
3
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Thispublicationwasgrant-aidedbythe
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‘Quisauramelirelirauneautobiographie,danslaforme.’
(PaulVale´ry)
ToAlby,
Forwhom‘autobiografiction’isjusttheworkofalie-lieman.
Acknowledgements
It is the acknowledgements in a book that are often the purest examples of
‘autobiografiction’. ‘Many people’ are customarily thanked for their collabora-
tionintheveryworkoverwhichtheauthorhasjustassertedhisorhersolemoral
right. Other names are invoked to give credibility to a work whose existence
mightwellsurprisethem.
Thus several friends and scholars have contributed ideas and information to
thisworkthatprovedmoreusefulthantheymayhaverealized.InparticularI’d
like to thank John Attridge, David Herman, Brian Hurwitz, Vicki Mahaffey,
GeorgeMyerson,SitaSchutt,andAlexZwerdling.Amongthosewhoknowhow
much they have done to help its evolution, I’m especially grateful to the
following, who heard or read earlier drafts, and offered extremely valuable
suggestions: Laurel Brake, Ron Bush, Dame Antonia Byatt, Keith Carabine,
Kate Fullbrook, Sara Haslam, Richard Kirkland, Laura Marcus, Jerome Maun-
sell, Richard Proudfoot, Paul Skinner, Anna Snaith, John Stokes, and Neil
Vickers.
Vesna Goldsworthy deserves special thanks; for generosity with her time, in
volunteeringtoreadmuchofthebook;andforherencouragementnonetheless.
Shecouldbesaidnotonlytohaveassistedatitsbirth,butalsotohavestoodinas
fairygodmother,showingmehowitstitlemightbeturnedinsideout.
Andrew McNeillie, the book’s original commissioning editor, was also won-
derfully encouraging while a book he hadn’t seen was assuming its final shape;
and wonderfully stoical when he saw its final scale. I am extremely grateful to
him, and to his successor Jacqueline Baker, and Ariane Petit and the staff at
Oxford University Press for their exemplary help and advice and support
throughout the publication process; and to Elizabeth Stone for her tactful and
attentivecopy-editing.
Ithastakenseveralperiodsofleavetocompletethiswork,andI’mgratefulto
the Arts and Humanities Research Board (as it then was) for awarding me a
semester’sresearchleavein2002;andI’mespeciallygratefultotheDepartment
ofEnglish,andtheSchoolofArtsandHumanitiesatKing’sCollegeLondon,for
their generosity in granting sabbatical leaves, and for their support of such an
extendedproject.
Earlierversionsofafewpartsofthisbookhaveappearedinprint.Theversions
appearing here are so different as scarcely to constitute republication; but I am
grateful—andnotonlyforthelegalisticallyminded—totheeditorsandpublish-
ersforpermissiontorepublishanymaterialfromthefollowingessays:
‘“ThingsPassedOver”:Ruskin,Modernism,andAutobiography’,Ruskinand
Modernism, ed. Giovanni Cianci and Peter Nicholls (Basingstoke: Palgrave,
viii Acknowledgements
2001), reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan; ‘Reflections on
ImpressionistAutobiography:James,ConradandFord’,Inter-relations:Conrad,
James, Ford, and Others in the series ‘Joseph Conrad: Eastern and Western
Perspectives’, gen. ed. Wieslaw Krajka (Lublin/Columbia University Press,
2003);‘BiographyandAutobiography’,CambridgeHistoryofTwentieth-Century
EnglishLiterature,ed.LauraMarcusandPeterNicholls(Cambridge:Cambridge
UniversityPress,2004);‘Life-Writing,CulturalMemory,andLiteraryStudies’,
in Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook,
EditedbyAstridErllandAnsgarNu¨nningincollaborationwithSaraB.Young
(Berlin andNew York: Walterde Gruyter, 2008);‘Autobiografiction:Howthe
Edwardian Stephen Reynolds identified a new genre among the experiments of
his time’, ‘Commentary’ essay, TLS (3 October 2008); ‘Autobiografiction:
Experimental Life-Writing from the Turn of the Century to Modernism’,
LiteratureCompass,6:2(2009).
ForpermissiontoquotefromtheSelectedPoems1908-1969byEzraPoundI
amgratefultotheestateofEzraPoundandFaberandFaberLtd.
ForpermissiontoreproducevisualimagesIamgratefultothefollowing:
The estate of Alfred Cohen, for ‘Confrontation Bergamasque’ on the dust-
jacket; The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery (Bedford Borough Council), Bedford,
England,forArthurHughes’drawingofMarkRutherford;TheGaltonCollec-
tion, UCL Library Services, for Galton’s composite portrait; and the Society of
Authors,fortheillustrationsfromVirginiaWoolf’sOrlando.
Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
Introduction 1
PART I: MODERN IRONIZATIONS OF AUTO/
BIOGRAPHY AND THE EMERGENCE OF
AUTOBIOGRAFICTION: VICTORIAN AND
`
FIN DE SIECLE PRECURSORS
1. Im/personality:TheImaginaryPortraitsofWalterPater 29
2. AestheticAuto/biography:RuskinandProust 71
3. Pseudonymity,Third-personality,andAnonymityasDisturbances
infindesi`ecleAuto/biography:‘MarkRutherford’,George
Gissing,EdmundGosseandOthers 108
4. Autobiografiction:StephenReynoldsandA.C.Benson 165
5. Auto/biografiction:CounterfeitLives:ATaxonomyof
DisplacementsofFictiontowardsLife-Writing 208
6. LiteraryImpressionismandImpressionistAutobiographies:
HenryJames,JosephConrad,andFordMadoxFord 260
PART II: MODERNIST AUTO/BIOGRAFICTION
7. HeteronymityI:ImaginaryAuthorshipandImaginary
Autobiography:Pessoa,Joyce,Svevo 291
8. HeteronymityII:TaxonomiesofFictionalCreativity:
Joyce(continued)andStein 337
9. Auto/biographeseandAuto/biografictioninVerse:EzraPound
andHughSelwynMauberley 371
10. SatiricalAuto/biografiction:WyndhamLewisand
RichardAldington 420
11. Woolf,Bloomsbury,the‘NewBiography’,andtheNewAuto/
biografiction 438