This book discusses George Sand's autobiographic Histoire de ma vie from a variety of perpectives - thematic, structural and stylistic - and examines the often contradictory images of the author/narrator that emerge, in particular, from Sand's confused and ambivalent attitude to her gender. At each point, Sand's intriguing work is placed in the context of modern autobiographical and feminist theory, and measured against the conventions of traditonal male autobiography. What emerges is a fascinatingly hybrid, androgenous text that combines different modes and voices, giving a unique access to the person of the author herself, both as she wished to appear and as she appears in spite of herself. Janet Hiddleston is a Lecturer in French and a fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Her research interests centre on pre-twentieth century women's writing and has published on Madame de Lafayette.
This book discusses George Sand's autobiographic Histoire de ma vie from a variety of perpectives - thematic, structural and stylistic - and examines the often contradictory images of the author/narrator that emerge, in particular, from Sand's confused and ambivalent attitude to her gender. At each point, Sand's intriguing work is placed in the context of modern autobiographical and feminist theory, and measured against the conventions of traditonal male autobiography. What emerges is a fascinatingly hybrid, androgenous text that combines different modes and voices, giving a unique access to the person of the author herself, both as she wished to appear and as she appears in spite of herself. Janet Hiddleston is a Lecturer in French and a fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Her research interests centre on pre-twentieth century women's writing and has published on Madame de Lafayette.
Introduction 1 Autobiographical Project 2 Family Relationships 3 Structure 4 Identity and Writing, Conclusion
J.A. Hiddleston
It is in subtle textual analysis that Hiddleston excels, and her
studies of Sand s vocabulary, structure, imagery, symbolism and
narrative strategies break new ground... Hiddleston offers us a
sensitive and nuanced portrait of a complex writer.--Nigel Harkness
"French Studies, LV.1, 2001, 104-5 ""
Janet Hiddleston s well-informed, lucid and succinct study, which
takes account of Sand s complex, often contradictory self-identity
in terms of gender, will undoubtedly make more accessible a text
which is all too often approached selectively.--Belinda Jack"Times
Literary Supplement" (07/01/2000)"
The conclusion, in many respects the most compelling section of the
book, offers a fascinating analysis of central image polarities of
the autobiography, Paris versus Nohant, the Garden of Eden versus a
room of one s own .--Keith Wren "Modern Language Review, 96.3,
2001, 832-3 ""
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