Ana}}s Nin, Fictionality and Femininity [Hardcover]

Helen Tookey examines the work of Ana?s Nin (1903-77)-- and the different versions of Nin herself, as woman, writer, and iconic figure--through the lens of cultural and historical contexts. She focuses particularly on questions of identity and femininity, exploring how the self, for Nin, is constructed through narratives and performances of various kinds, and shedding light on key issues and conflicts within feminist thinking since the 1970s, particularly questions of identity, femininity, and psychoanalysis.

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. 'I Must Live within Stories': Narratives of the Self
2. 'As Fluid as Mercury': Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Questions of Identity
3. Sphinxes and Scheherezades: The Actress and the Femme Fatale
4. 'Revolution in Writing': Gender, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of the Ideal Language
5. 'I am the Other Face of You': Fantasies and Femininity
Bibliography
Index

The book reveals Tookey's thorough grasp of Nin's writings and of all relevant and recent literary criticism.... Articulate, readable, and well footnoted--with a good bibliography and index--this is a valuable volume for Nin scholars. --Choice

Helen Tookey was born in Leicester in 1969. She studied philosophy at Sheffield and Cambridge, gaining a D.Phil from Oxford in 2000. She has taught at Liverpool University and Manchester Metropolitan University.