The Writing Life: Authorship and Authority in Recent American Autobiographical Narratives
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The Writing Life: Authorship and Authority in Recent American Autobiographical Narratives Jonathan L. D’Amore A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English & Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: Linda Wagner-Martin Gregory Flaxman Mary Floyd-Wilson Minrose Gwin Fred Hobson © 2011 Jonathan L. D’Amore ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract Jonathan L. D’Amore The Writing Life: Authorship and Authority in Recent American Autobiographical Narratives (Under the direction of Linda Wagner-Martin) “I was a node in a new electronic landscape of celebrity, personality, and status,” Norman Mailer wrote in 1959, describing the literary renown he earned after the publication of his first novel, The Naked and the Dead, a decade earlier. Mailer made his career as an active participant-observer in that landscape, alternately embracing and rebelling against his position and often featuring that role at the center of his texts. This project addresses the dual nature of the author as a cultural producer and product by examining self- representations in the works of Norman Mailer, John Edgar Wideman, and Dave Eggers. Their writing about themselves illustrates the tension in autobiographical narratives which requires individuals whose social identities are inherently connected to their authorship to acknowledge that position but also to humanize it by writing against their roles as public figures to reveal their private, “inner” selves. This dissertation enters ongoing critical and theoretical discussions of authorship, autobiography, and celebrity through analysis of texts, contexts, and “paratexts”— the apparatus which supports and surrounds a work’s presentation to the world—in order to provide insight into the conflicting and overlapping interests of writers, publishers, and readers who are jointly invested in the ambiguity between the public and private personae of authors. iii For Maura and Frank, this and everything. iv Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge that when your dissertation project includes a discussion of Dave Eggers, any tomfoolery in one’s acknowledgements would be purely derivative and inappropriate. So there will be no more tomfoolery or any other kind of nonsense in this front matter.1 After all, writing a dissertation is serious business—a serious and often isolating business, which is why I am so grateful for the kindness, generosity, and friendship of everyone who has encouraged me in this long process. I started thinking about autobiographical nonfiction years ago as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, and my advisor there, Joseph Buttigieg, was an important mentor as I learned to research and write about this form of literature as an academic rather than as just a student. Likewise, in the early years of my graduate education at UNC, Townsend Ludington was a jovial and wise guide. I am also grateful to Lewis Dabney, who gave me the opportunity to watch the story of a literary life blossom on the page as we worked together on his fantastic biography of Edmund Wilson. One of my first courses as a grad student was led by Jane Danielewicz, and in the years since she has been my most helpful resource in the vast and ever-growing field of 1 Except maybe for thanking my dogs, if that counts as nonsense. Scooter Jones and Plum Tucker: I couldn’t have done it without you, friends. Really. v life writing studies. In my graduate school career, I have had two opportunities which have been especially relevant to my scholarly work, and I owe Bill Andrews a debt of gratitude for both: serving as coordinator of the Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program (and working in that capacity with James Thompson, whom I would also like to thank); and acting as the managing editor of the fine and important journal, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. It is also essential that I thank the family of Diana Poteat Hobby for their generosity in endowing the dissertation fellowship that enabled me to have a semester of work on this project uninterrupted by other professional obligations. The members of my dissertation committee have, as a group, been patient, flexible, and immensely helpful. Gregg Flaxman sat with me at Café Driade on numerous occasions, providing critical guidance for identifying the scope of this project; Minrose Gwin’s incisive perspective in my prospectus meeting has stayed with me throughout this project and has made my own perspective that much more incisive; Fred Hobson, who led another of my early grad courses, has been very generous with his time at a critical juncture for this project; Mary Floyd-Wilson, our inimitable director of graduate studies, has likewise been generous and flexible when I and this project needed it most. It is an honor to submit this project for their approval. Linda Wagner-Martin is one of the great scholars of American literature, and one of the most encouraging, untiring and insightful people I have had the pleasure to work with. She is a mentor par excellence. I am so pleased by the great good fortune that allows me to celebrate an important milestone in my career with an especially significant one in hers. She has been a transformative influence on so many of us. vi I made two of my very best friends in grad school. Bryan Sinche and Kurt Spurlock have kept me sharp and kept me laughing; I hope they continue to do so for a long time. My entire family—two amazing sisters, Carolyn and Melissa; one righteous brother, Dan; Matt, Meg, Sean, Cora, Jeremy—has made my life bright and special while I trudged through a project that was at times dark and dull. Mike and Janice McKee have been generous and encouraging in ways that are far beyond any measure of mere kindness; Janice’s help in the past few months quite literally has made it possible for me to finish this project. I’m so thankful to them. My parents, David and Debbi D’Amore, are a gift. They have always been my truest and most steadfast supporters and friends, and they have given me more good guidance and love than any son or daughter could hope for. I do everything I can to make them proud. Though he was not here to see very much of the work behind this dissertation, my dearest, sweetest friend in the whole world, Amanto Francis D’Amore, has changed my outlook on this project for the better in the past four months. It has been hard to keep my eyes on a book or on the screen since Frank arrived, and it is my most sincere joy to be so distracted. Thank you, baby. And especially: I have lived and worked alongside Maura McKee D’Amore for many years now, and her clear thinking, close reading, and devoted teaching form an enviable model. She has made this dissertation a better project than it would have otherwise been, and me a better person. She makes me happy every day. Simply put, there is nothing which helps me more than having her as my partner in it all. vii Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ...........................................................................................................x Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 The Life of the Author ...........................................................................................16 The Life of the Book ..............................................................................................39 The Life in the Book ..............................................................................................53 The Lives of Others ...............................................................................................69 Chapter One Norman Mailer’s Existential Autobiography .....................................................................82 Advertisements for Myself: Text as Paratext ..........................................................87 “The Shits are Killing Us” ...................................................................................100 Armies of the Night and the Many Marching Mailers..........................................112 Chapter Two Process and Play in “Great Time”: John Edgar Wideman’s Interactive Autobiographical Project ...............................................................................130 “An Attempt to Capture a Process”: Autobiographical Acts and Pacts in Brothers and Keepers ......................................................................138 “But Is My Story Possible Without Someone Listening”: Writing, Reading, and Living Memories .............................................................154 Chapter Three “But Self-Awareness Is Sincerity”: Authorship and Exposure, Irony and Earnestness, Dave Eggers and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ..............................................................................................170 viii “I am True of Heart!”/ “You are True of Heart!”: Paratexts and the Autobiographical Pact .............................................................176 Behind the Scaffolding: Eggers’s Architecture of Autobiographical Narrative .................................................................................199 The Ubiquitous Recluse .......................................................................................208 Coda: Author as Activist ......................................................................................221 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................227