18 books like Modern selves

What to read after Modern selves — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault · 1975 · ★ 4.1 · 333p · ≈ 11h · Moderate English version of "Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison" Shares: Community pick

Victorian Diary Anne-Marie Millim · 2013 · 226p · ≈ 7h · Moderate In her examination of neglected diaristic texts, Anne-Marie Millim expands the field of Victorian diary criticism by complicating the conventional notion of diaries as mainly private sources of biographical information. She argues that for Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake, Henry Crabb Robinson, George Eliot, George Gissing, John Ruskin, Edith Simcox and Gerard Manley Hopkins, the exposure or publication… Shares: English prose literature, Autobiographie, Histoire et critique, History and criticism

Phenomenology of Autobiography Arnaud Schmitt · 2017 · 186p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Taking a fresh look at the state of autobiography as a genre, The Phenomenology of Autobiography: Making it Real takes a deep dive into the experience of the reader. Dr. Schmitt argues that current trends in the field of life writing have taken the focus away from the text and the initial purpose of autobiography as a means for the author to communicate with a reader and narrate an experience.… Shares: Self in literature, Moi, Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

Consuming autobiographies Claire Boyle · 2007 · 186p · ≈ 6h · Moderate "Since 1975, French literary writing has been marked by an autobiographical turn which has seen authors increasingly often tap into the vein of what the French term ecriture de soi. This coincides, paradoxically, with the 'death of autobiography', as these authors self-consciously distance themselves and their writings from conventional autobiography, founding a 'nouvelle autobiographie'… Shares: Self in literature, Moi, Histoire et critique, History and criticism

Relating narratives Adriana Cavarero · 2000 · 165p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Relating Narratives is a major new work by the philosopher and feminist thinker Adriana Cavarero. First published in Italian to widespread acclaim, Relating Narratives is a fascinating and challenging new account of the relationship between selfhood and narration. Drawing a diverse array of thinkers from both the philosophical and the literary tradition, from Sophocles and Homer to Hannah Arendt,… Shares: Self in literature, Moi, Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

The situation and the story Vivian Gornick · 2001 · ★ 3.8 · 169p · ≈ 5h · Moderate "All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator, but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth.". "How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the reliable… Shares: American prose literature, English prose literature, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Design and truth in autobiography Roy Pascal · 1960 · 202p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Originally published in 1960. Is there an art of autobiography? What are its origins and how has it come to acquire the form we know today? For what does the autobiographer seek, and why should it be so popular? This study suggests some of the answers to these questions. It takes the view that autobiography is one of the dominant and characteristic forms of literary self-expression and deserves… Shares: Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

Autobiography and Questions of Gender Shirley Neuman · 2015 · 217p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Originally published in 1991. Addressing the ways in which the ideology of gender and its social construction determine autobiographical self-representations, the essays here consider several women’s works in the light of the social and historical conditions which enabled their production. Some examine diaries as a feminine form and ask about the ways in which thematic content such as childbirth… Shares: American prose literature, Biography & Memoir

Poems W. H. Auden · 1934 · ★ 4.2 · 223p · ≈ 7h · Challenging Volume 1. This book contains all the essays and reviews that W.H. Auden wrote during the years when he was living in England, and also includes the full original versions of his two illustrated travel books, Letters from Iceland (written in collaboration with Louis MacNeice) and Journey to a War (written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood). Auden's early prose ranges from extravagant… Shares: American prose literature, English prose literature

Adventures in Contentment David Grayson · 1907 · ★ 4.1 · 138p · ≈ 4h · Challenging This, I am firmly convinced, is a strange world, as strange a one as I Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors, Biography & Memoir

La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert Joël Dicker · 2012 · ★ 4.2 · 680p · ≈ 22h · Moderate Sous ses airs de thriller à l'américaine, La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert est une réflexion sur l'Amérique, sur les travers de la société moderne, sur la littérature, sur la justice et sur les médias. Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors

Life Writing and Victorian Culture David Amigoni · 2006 · 252p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "In this collection of interdisciplinary essays, experts from Britain and the United States in the fields of nineteenth-century literature, and social and cultural history explore new directions in the field of Victorian life writing. Chapters examine a varied yet interrelated range of genres, from the biography and autobiography, to the relatively neglected diary, collective biography, and… Shares: English prose literature, Biography & Memoir

John Barleycorn Jack London · 1913 · ★ 4.0 · 162p · ≈ 5h · Challenging It all came to me one election day. It was on a warm California afternoon, and I had ridden down into the Valley of the Moon from the ranch to the little village to vote Yes and No to a host of proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State of California. Because of the warmth of the day I had had several drinks before casting my ballot, and divers drinks after casting it. Then I had ridden… Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors, Biography & Memoir

Autobiography as philosophy Thomas Mathien · 2006 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Most philosophical writing is impersonal and argumentative, but many important philosophers have nevertheless written accounts of their own lives. Filling a gap in the market for a text focusing on autobiography as philosophy, this collection discusses several such autobiographies in the light of their authors' broader work, and considers whether there are any philosophical tasks for which life… Shares: Autobiographie, Histoire et critique, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Early modern English lives Ronald Bedford · 2007 · 249p · ≈ 8h · Moderate How did early modern English people write about themselves, and how do we listen to their voices four centuries later? The authors of Early Modern English Lives: Autobiography and Self-Representation 1500-1660 argue that identity is depicted through complex, subtle, and often contradictory social interactions and literary forms. Diaries, letters, daily spiritual reckonings, household journals,… Shares: Autobiographie, Histoire et critique, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

The journey to Rome Christine M. Bochen · 1988 · 436p · ≈ 14h · Moderate This title, first published in 1988, examines accounts of religious conversion contained in the personal narratives of nineteenth-century American coverts to Roman Catholicism. Given their newly acquired status as members of an unpopular religious minority, a number of converts recorded their conversion stories in an effort to justify becoming Catholic and to defend the teaching and practice of… Shares: Autobiographie, Histoire et critique, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Narrative Identity and Moral Identity Kim Atkins · 2008 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate This book is part of the growing field of practical approaches to philosophical questions relating to identity, agency and ethics--approaches which work across continental and analytical traditions and which Atkins justifies through an explication of how the structures of human embodiment necessitate a narrative model of selfhood, understanding, and ethics. Shares: Moi, Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

Writing Life Writing Paul John Eakin · 2020 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Why do we endlessly tell the stories of our lives? And why do others pay attention when we do? The essays collected here address these questions, focusing on three different but interrelated dimensions of life writing. The first section, "Narrative," argues that narrative is not only a literary form but also a social and cultural practice, and finally a mode of cognition and an expression of our… Shares: Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

About the book Modern selves →