Dangerous writing : the autobiographies of Willa Muir, Margaret Laurence and Janet Frame / / Carmen Luz Fuentes-Vásquez.

• Superior document: Costerus ; new ser., 199
• Author: Fuentes-Vásquez, Carmen Luz.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Costerus ; new ser., v. 199.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book examines the literary construction of personal identity through autobiographical narratives by three significant writers analysed together for the first time: the Scottish Willa Muir (1890-1970), the Canadian Margaret Laurence (1926-1987), and the New Zealander Janet Frame (1924-2004). These apparently dissimilar authors suffered not only geographical, but also political marginality: they were women from the working-class or struggling middle-class, striving to be considered as professional writers, and emerging from countries that might be felt to be under the shadows of economic and political world powers such as England and the United States. During their lifetimes, they exerted themselves to overcome prejudices about class, gender and ethnicity. They experienced war and the post-war era, and lived through most of the twentieth century, being accurate witnesses and critics of their times. As it discusses major writers who are iconic for the development of the literatures of their respective countries, this book also attracts readers who are interested in learning more about the lives of these remarkable women, the way their socio-historical and geographical circumstances affected their writing and how they expressed such concerns in their autobiographies and other fictional and non-fictional works, besides considering them in relation to contemporary women writers —and autobiographers— who underwent similar experiences.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION -- THE WRITER AND THE TRANSLATOR -- THE WRITER AS MOTHER -- BELONGING TO THE UNIVERSE -- MOTHERHOOD AS GIFT AND TRAP -- THE DYNAMIC CONCEPT OF PLACE -- THE CRAFT OF THE WRITER: VULNERABILITY AND POWER -- APLACE FOR THE SELF -- THE WRITER’S VOCATION -- IN SEARCH OF LONELINESS -- CONCLUSION -- WILLA MUIR’S TRANSLATIONS: (In order of publication, followed in parenthesis by title of the original work and date of its publication.) -- INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR CLARA THOMAS -- ARCHIVES CONSULTED -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.