Biography, vol. 25, no. 3 (Summer 2002)
ARTICLES
Richard Schur
Critical Race Theory and the Limits of Auto/Biography: Reading Patricia Williams’s The Alchemy of Race and Rights Through/Against Postcolonial Theory, p. 455
This article examines how Patricia Williams’s The Alchemy of Race and Rights develops critical race theory by carrying out the concerns, methods, and goals of Gayatri Spivak’s articulation of the subaltern and postcolonial theory within the context of U.S. law. Williams’s book performs a critique of legal subjectivity by first creating and then deconstructing a series of auto/biographical moments. By placing critical race theory and postcolonial theory into dialogue, the article demonstrates how these distinct theoretical orientations rely on auto/biography to supplement the limits of the Western political tradition in order to realize its potential.
Kevin J. Hayes
Poe, the Daguerreotype, and the Autobiographical Act, p. 477
After sitting for his first daguerreotype, Edgar Allan Poe was extremely disappointed with the resulting image, which looks nothing like the photographs of him we are accustomed to seeing. For his subsequent daguerreotypes, Poe came to understand precisely how to shape his personal image for the camera. The resulting images have become icons of American literature and culture.
SKETCHES FROM LIFE
David Parker
Counter-Transference in Reading Autobiography: The Case of Kathryn Harrison’s The Kiss, p. 493
In exploring issues of counter-transference in reading autobiography, this article compares divergent readings of Kathryn Harrison’s memoir The Kiss, and offers a personal case for thinking that some narratives of childhood may elicit powerful counter-transferential impulses originating in critics’ own lives.
REVIEWS
Traditions of Victorian Women’s Autobiography: The Poetics and Politics of Life Writing, by Linda H. Peterson, p. 505
Reviewed by Kate Flint
Solitary Travelers: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Travel Narratives and the Scientific Vocation, by Lila Marz Harper, p. 509
Reviewed by Elizabeth Sabiston
Working in Women’s Archives: Researching Women’s Private Literature and Archival Documents, edited by Helen M. Buss and Marlene Kadar, p. 513
Reviewed by Janice Dickin
Genesis, Manuscrits-Recherche-Invention, Autobiographie, edited by Philippe Lejeune and Catherine Viollet, p. 518
Reviewed by Marie-Christine Garneau
Publishing Women’s Life Stories in France, 1647–1720: From Voice to Print, by Elizabeth C. Goldsmith, p. 522
Reviewed by Roxanne Decker Lalande
May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt, by Marilyn Booth, p. 526
Reviewed by Faegheh Shirazi
Doña Maria’s Story: Life, History, Memory, and Political Identity, by Daniel James, p. 530
Reviewed by Catherine Davies
The Female Crucifix: Images of St. Wilgefortis since the Middle Ages, by Ilse E. Friesen, p. 534
Reviewed by Joseph M. Sullivan
The Five Crows Ledger: Biographic Warrior Art of the Flathead Indians, by James D. Keyser, p. 538
Reviewed by Larry J. Zimmerman
LIFELINES, p. 541
Upcoming events, calls for papers, and news from the field
CONTRIBUTORS, p. 543
(back to top)
|
