Description

• Title:
  Scholar – Fictionist – Memoirist: David Lodge’s Documentary (Self-)Biography in Quite a Good Time to be Born: 1935–1975
• Creator:
  Kusek, Robert
• Description:
  Over the last decade or so, David Lodge has become not only a reader but also an avid practitioner of “fact-based writing” - be it the biographical novel (The Master of 2004 and A Man of Parts 2011), the autobiographical novel (Deaf Sentence of 2008), the biographical essay (Lives in Writing of 2014) and - finally - a proper autobiography (Quite a Good Time to Be Born of 2015). The aim of this paper is to analyse Lodge’s recent turn to life narratives and, in particular, his autobiographical story of 2015; and, consequently, to address the following questions: Does Lodge’s memoir offer “an experiment in autobiography” (to quote H.G. Wells, one of Lodge’s favourites), or remain a conventional life story immune to the tenets of contemporary life writing? Is it the work of a (self- )historian, or a novelist? Does it belong to the “regime of truth,” or is it the product of memory? Finally, is it, indeed, a memoir (as its subtitle claims), or a specimen of self-biography? The paper will show special interest in the work’s generic characteristics and will offer an attempt to locate Quite a Good Time to Be Born on the map of contemporary life writing practices.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Date:
  2016.12.08
• Type:
  info:eu-repo/semantics/article;
  info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion;
  Peer-reviewed articles
• Language:
  English
• Source:
  Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2016); 115-131;
  Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Tom 51 Nr 1 (2016); 115-131;
  2082-5102;
  0081-6272
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Publisher:
  Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan
• Relation: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2016-0005/28906
• Subject:
  David Lodge;
  memoir;
  auto/biography;
  documentary biography
• Identifier: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2016-0005
• Data provider:
  Platforma Otwartych Czasopism Naukowych UAM
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  other