Memory, Narrative, Identity Remembering the Self

by King, Nicola

• ISBN13: 9780748611157
• ISBN10: 0748611150
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-14
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

This book analyses a range of autobiographical and fictional texts which foreground issues of memory, history and trauma in the construction of identity. The author offers close readings of texts including Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, Toni Morrison's Beloved, George Perec's W Or the Memory of Childhood, and Anne Michaels's Fugutive Pieces. Memory, Narrative, Identity is a powerful contribution to the growing field of "trauma" and holocaust studies. It will be of relevance to those working in the areas of literary and cultural studies, which are witnessing a steady growth of interest in autobiography, theories of narrative, and the relationship between trauma, history and memory.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Series Editor's Introduction	ix
Introduction: `But we didn't know that then'	1	(10)
Memory in Theory	11	(22)
Present Imperfect Translation: Ronald Fraser's In Search of a Past and Carolyn Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman	33	(28)
`A life entire': Narrative Reconstruction in Sylvia Fraser's My Father's House and Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye	61	(32)
Myths of Origin: Identity, Memory and Detection in Barbara Vine's A Dark Adapted Eye and Asta's Book	93	(26)
Holocaust, Memory, Representation: Georges Perec's W or The Memory of Childhood and Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces	119	(31)
Rememory and Reconstruction: Toni Morrison's Beloved	150	(25)
Afterword	175	(7)
Bibliography	182	(12)
Index	194