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“My Publisher Urged Me to Write an Autobiography”: Christine Brooke-Rose’s Experiments with Life Writing

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Experiments in Life-Writing

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Life Writing ((PSLW))

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Abstract

This chapter traces Brooke-Rose’s engagement with her resistance to life-writing, which she tries to overcome in Remake and Life, End of by turning these autobiographical texts into narrative experiments critically monitored by metapoetic reflections and shaped by the same defamiliarising techniques used in her novels. However, this crossing of the boundary between autobiography and fiction is not geared towards extending the form of autobiography but to expose and question staple generic distinctions altogether. The numerous intertextual connections between Brooke-Rose’s different works dislodge generic classifications and demarcations in favour of an open network of generically ambiguous texts bearing the imprint of her lifelong experiments with language and fiction.

I have always felt a deep prejudice against both autobiography and biographical criticism, at least with reference to writers. . . . Nevertheless I wrote an autobiography. Why? Simply because in old age one starts reminiscing? No. The reason was in fact autobiographical. . . . my publisher urged me to write an autobiography. 1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter Den Linden 6, Room 3009, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Eveline Kilian

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  1. Eveline Kilian
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Correspondence to Eveline Kilian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Lucia Boldrini

  2. University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Julia Novak

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Kilian, E. (2017). “My Publisher Urged Me to Write an Autobiography”: Christine Brooke-Rose’s Experiments with Life Writing. In: Boldrini, L., Novak, J. (eds) Experiments in Life-Writing. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55414-3_4

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