My research identifies an emerging trend among writers working on the borders of fiction and non-fiction for novels that function as aesthetic autobiographies. These works articulate ways in which the lived experience of the writer intersects with the artistic expression of these experiences. I examine novels by Rachel Cusk, Elena Ferrante, Sheila Heti, Jhumpa Lahiri and Deborah Levy as well as non-fiction texts by these authors. I argue that works by these women writers form a conversation of the kind Helene Cixous urges in her essay 'The Laugh of the Medusa' and I view the resulting work as a female countercanon. Further, I argue that these works constitute a canon of motherhood, to which my own novel The Weaning might belong. As a way of furthering my understanding of my own creative practice I consider the exchange that occurs between writer and proxy, writer and text, writer and reader, reader and text as a process of literary weaning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:767073 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Vincent, Hannah |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/81976/ |
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