At face value : autobiographical writing in Spanish America / Sylvia Molloy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Molloy, Sylvia, 1938-2022, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in Latin American and Iberian literature ; 4.

Cambridge studies in Latin American and Iberian literature ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish American prose literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Spanish American prose literature.

Spanish American prose literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Biography as a literary form.

Autobiography.

Self in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 273 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study of Spanish American autobiography from its beginnings in the post-colonial nineteenth century to the present day concentrates mainly on cultural and historical issues. Spanish American autobiographies are fascinating hybrids, often wielding several discourses at once. They aspire to documentary status while unabashedly exalting the self, and dwell on personal experience while purporting to be exercises in historiography, the founding texts of a national archive. Professor Molloy examines a wide range of texts, from Sarmiento's Recuerdos de provincia to Victoria Ocampo's Autobiografia. She analyses their textual strategies, the generic affiliations they claim, their relationship to the European canon and their dialogue with precursor texts, as well as their problematic use of memory and the ideological implications of their repressive tactics. This method enables her to identify perceptions of self and tensions between self and other, thus shedding light on the fluctuating place of the subject within a community.

Contents:

pt. 1. The scene of reading

pt. 2. Childhood and family tales

pt. 3. Memory, lineage and representation.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780511827358

0511827350

9781139085786

1139085786

9780511553844

0511553846

Publisher Number:

2027/heb07623 hdl