Adopting a boldly innovative approach to women's autobiographical writing, Francoise Lionnet here examines the rhetoric of self-portraiture in works by authors who are bilingual or multilingual or of mixed races or cultures. Autobiographical Voices offers incisive readings of texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Marie Cardinal, Maryse Conde, Marie-Therese Humbert, Augustine, and Nietzsche.

About the Author

Francoise Lionnet is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Postcolonial Representations: Women, Literature, Identity, also from Cornell University Press.

Reviews

Autobiographical Voices is an innovative, highly suggestive study of autobiographical writing that cuts across traditional boundaries of canon and culture, gender, genre, and academic discipline. Lionnet's purpose is to break down accepted polarities, opening up the field of literary studies to a cultural diversity that she herself has incorporated in both her subject matter and methodology. Although a scholarly work, this book also expresses a forthright message about freedom of expression, especially that of groups silenced by political and cultural oppression.

-- Mary Rice-Defosse * Modern Language Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501728044
Author Francoise Lionnet
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 19mm