Fiction, friction and fracture : autobiographic novels as a site for changing discouses [i.e. discourses] around subjectivity, truth and identity

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concept of the self or subject is more relevant now than ever, since society's perceptions aboutselfhood are in the process of changing. Autobiography is an important site for the critical discussion ofissues surrounding the subject – such as truth, identity formation and agency – seeing that it is one ofthe most revealing spaces in which these altering perceptions manifest.As can be deduced from the title of my thesis, FICTION, FRICTION AND FRACTURE: AutobiographicNovels as a Site For Changing Discourses Around Subjectivity, Truth and Identity, I explore whatautobiographic novels disclose about the notions truth, self-representation and identity formation thatemerge from an investigation of the subject.Poststructuralism and feminism have been instrumental in destabilizing the notion of a unified subjectas well as any concept that makes universal claims. Throughout this thesis I will be applyingpoststructuralist and feminist theories around subjectivity to my work as well as the work of a selectionof autobiographic novelists, namely Robert Crumb, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware.When referring to autobiographic novels I will be applying Leigh Gilmore's term autobiographics.Autobiographics introduces a way of thinking about life narrative that focuses on the changingdiscourses of truth and identity that feature in autobiographical representations of selfhood. I will beutilizing Gilmore's term since it so neatly encompasses the concepts that I will be investigating.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University