Description
A chapter of this publication is open access under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence.
About the Author
Zachary Leader grew up in California but has lived in Britain for over forty years. He was educated at Northwestern University, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Harvard. In addition to teaching at Roehampton, he has taught at Caltech and the University of Chicago. He is the author of Reading Blake's Songs, Writer's Block, Revision and Romantic Authorship, and The Life of Kingsley Amis, a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. The first volume of his two-volume biography of Saul Bellow will be published this May. He has edited three volumes for OUP: On Modern British Fiction, Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works (with Michael O'Neill) and The Movement Reconsidered. Leader is also general editor of the Oxford History of Life-Writing, a projected seven-volume series. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Reviews
Leader astutely leaves the most radical essay until last: in 'The Unstoried Life', analytic philosopher, Galen Strawson restates his objection to the view of 'narrativists' (as he terms them) that all human life is life-writing, and that life-writing is not only a necessary task for any self-respecting human being, but also, at least in the best case, an exercise of autonomy - self-determination'. His engagingly tendentious piece makes the case for 'non-narratives' - people like him - who do not fundamentally experience life or the self as narrative unities, whether (ostensibly) scripted from without or within. Still, the 'sampling' offered in On Life- Writing makes a nuanced and welcome ... contribution to life-writing studies. * Richard Freadman, Australian Book Review *
The quality of the essays ... are impressively rich, notably those of James Shapiro on Shakespeare, Hermione Lee on the meetings of famous writers, and Galen Strawson on whether lives may be said ever to have a coherent story or narrative. (He suggests there is no carpet in which to find a figure, leaving all of us in the condition of shag rugs.) Other essays in the book are covered with that magical dust only academic writers possess, which allows them to render unreadable even the most splendid of subjects. * Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal *
a timely examination of the past, present and future of storied lives ... The contributors to On Life-Writing-many of whom are practitioners themselves - theorize throughout about the authority, authenticity and objectivity of their craft, as well as the relations between life-writing and history, psychoanalysis and philosophy * Frances Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement *
... a timely examination of past, present and future of storied lives * Frances Wilson, Times Literary Supplement *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198704065
Author Zachary Leader
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 538g
Dimensions(mm) 221mm * 148mm * 25mm