What happens, asks Patrick Riley, when a life transformed becomes an autobiography? What is the relationship between the subjective upheaval of conversion and the representation of character? Who, then, is this ""self"" writing the life narrative? Thinking of conversion as a radical turning point or fulcrum on which incompatible configurations of character are precariously balanced, Riley examines both historically and tropologically the paradoxes of identity and life writing that conversion raises. While conversion can ...
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What happens, asks Patrick Riley, when a life transformed becomes an autobiography? What is the relationship between the subjective upheaval of conversion and the representation of character? Who, then, is this ""self"" writing the life narrative? Thinking of conversion as a radical turning point or fulcrum on which incompatible configurations of character are precariously balanced, Riley examines both historically and tropologically the paradoxes of identity and life writing that conversion raises. While conversion can motivate the writing of an autobiography that ties together threads of a life story, it also implies a fragmentation of character. As it creates a unified framework for the subject's history, it also disrupts any stable conception of the self. Beginning with Augustine's Confessions as the canonical model of religious conversion, the author investigates the changing forms of conversion in selected works by Montaigne and Descartes, culminating in reformulations by Rousseau and Sartre. Moving from a purely religious rebirth to works grounded in a personal philosophy or aesthetic vocation, the autobiographies considered in this book stand as episodes in a genealogy of conversion. Riley argues that the metamorphoses of character inherent to conversion disrupt any interpretation or even representation of the self as static. It is no longer clear that the narrator represents the subject in any but a nominal way. In fact, Riley contends, the subject of an autobiography can never be self-identical. Challenging predominant theories of subjectivity in autobiography studies, Character and Conversion in Autobiography recognizes subjectivity as a dynamic process and suggests a redefinition of how we examine character and life writing.
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Add this copy of Character and Conversion in Autobiography: Augustine, to cart. $55.31, good condition, Sold by Anybook rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lincoln, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2004 by University Of Virginia Press.
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This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. Clean from markings. In good all round condition. Dust jacket in fair condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 600grams, ISBN: 9780813922928.
Add this copy of Character and Conversion in Autobiography: Augustine, to cart. $38.81, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of Virginia Press.
Add this copy of Character and Conversion in Autobiography: Augustine, to cart. $62.14, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2004 by University of Virginia Press.
Add this copy of Character and Conversion in Autobiography: Augustine, to cart. $80.06, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of Virginia Press.
Add this copy of Character and Conversion in Autobiography: Augustine, to cart. $151.21, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of Virginia Press.
