Blowers, Tonya (1998) Locating the self : re-reading autobiography as theory and practice, with particular reference to the writings of Janet Frame. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The thesis is a three-part study of the theory and practice of autobiography. The writing of
the New Zealand novelist, poet and autobiographer Janet Frame (1924-) is used as casestudy
throughout, juxtaposed to canonical texts of autobiography (typically written by
white western males) which have been used to draw conclusions about the self. Frame's
'autobiographical' writings (in particular her three-volume autobiography, To the Is-Land,
An Angel at My Table and The Envoy From Mirror City; and her novels Faces in the
Water and Owls Do Cry) are used to suggest a new approach to interpreting both the self in
society and the relationship between narrated self and context.
Part One is a re-reading of three classic texts of the genre, St.Augustine's Confessions,
Dante's Vita Nuova and John Bunyan's Grace Abounding. The assumption that such texts
describe an 'autonomous, unitary' male protagonist is thoroughly questioned and the texts
are read to reveal instead the characteristics of fragmentation and alterity usually reserved
for descriptons of the self in women's autobiographies. The point is emphasised that the
narrated self of autobiography must always be precisely located in time and space.
In Part Two, the definition of autobiography as genre is explored. Two schools of thought
are identified: one which focuses on the contract between reader and writer (Lejeune), the
other which highlights that the self is constructed in and through the narrative which
purports to represent it (Bruss, Barthes). Frame's writing is then used to test the
application of such models. The relationship between 'history' and 'fiction' is discussed as
the pivotal distinction on which the notion of autobiography hinges. Through a reading of
Frame's autobiographies and Paul Ricoeur's Time and Narrative, the notion of a 'textual
contract' as a new definition of autobiography as genre is developed: this definition
maintains both the importance of the life outside the text but also the representative nature
of narrative to transform that reality within the text.
Part Three puts into practice the theory of 'locating the self'. Frame's autobiographies are
first analysed through a series of categories of 'belonging': gender, class, race, nationality
and coloniality. It is suggested, using Elspeth Probyn's notion of Outside Belonging, that
Frame invents and performs the categories of both poet and schizophrenic in order to find a
place to belong. Finally, Frame's narrated self is analysed in the very specific context of the
local and national writing culture, demonstrating that the narrated self of autobiography is,
to a large extent, instructed in society and rehearsed by the author long before she puts pen
to paper.
The thesis concludes with the notion of autobiography as metaphor which is seen as
resolving many of the theoretical dilemmas posed throughout.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CT Biography P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Autobiography, Frame, Janet -- Criticism and interpretation, Self in literature
Official Date:	April 1998
Dates:	Date Event April 1998 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for the Study of Women and Gender
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Steedman, Carolyn
Sponsors:	University of Warwick ; British Academy ; International Federation of University Women
Extent:	257 leaves
Language:	eng

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