French Autobiography Devices and Desires Rousseau to Perec [Hardcover]

This important book uses close readings of sixteen key French autobiographers to provide a major contribution to theoretical discussions of the genre. Sheringham traces the development of autobiography in French from Rousseau, exploring the differing devices with which autobiographers have dealt with enduring challenges: the difficulty of self-scrutiny, the self as textual construct, the relation to the reader, the problem of memory, and the influence of other texts and people.

This first complete English analysis of French autobiography ranges, expertly, from Rousseau'sConfessionsthrough Stendhal, Chaeaubriand, Gide, Barthes, Sarraute, and many more....A useful tool for faculty and graduate students. --Choice

Michael Sheringham engages, with subtlety, complexity, and admirable clarity, all the issues that students of the intriguing but elusive genre of autobiography have been pondering for the past quarter of a century....French Autobiographyis a thoughtful and vigorous book, as fine as any I have seen on autobiography in some years. There is a strong intelligence at work in the book calling out an equal response from its readers, a group that should include anyone interested in the state of the art, whether that art be autobiography or criticism or the project that includes both, literature itself. --L'Esprit Createur

A valuable contribution to a dynamic area of literary studies. This is a scholarly, methodical study....Impressive in its breadth of knowledge, examining theories and texts from eighteenth century to the present day. The synthesis achieved is remarkable, and the book, densely packed with ideas, requires and deserves attentive reading. --Modern Language Review

French Autobiographyoffers stimulating general insights into autobiographical as well as lucid critical analyses of individual texts. --IBiography