The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony

Rating:
Summary: Astute and compelling commentaries
Review: In The Limits Of Autobiography: Leigh Gilmore (Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State University) offers astute and compelling commentaries in relation to the social and psychic forms within which selected autobiographers told their personal stories in literate and unconventional ways. The informative, thought-provoking chapters comprising this unique and highly recommended contribution to the literary study of the autobiography include: Represent Yourself; Bastard Testimony: Illegitimacy and Incest in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina; There Will Always Be a Father: Transference and the Auto/biographical Demand in Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart; There Will Always Be a Mother: Jamaica Kincaid's Serial Autobiography; Without Names: An Anatomy of Absence in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body; Conclusion - the Knowing Subject and an Alternative Jurisprudence of Trauma. The Limits Of Autobiography is enhanced further for the student with a bibliography and index.

Rating:
Summary: Limitless Vision
Review: THE LIMITS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY is ground-breaking in its originality and range, dramatic in its intensity and depth, and endlessly surprising in its illumination of six fictive autobiographies (SHOT IN THE HEART, WRITTEN ON THE BODY, BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, ANNIE JOHN, LUCY, and MY BROTHER). Leigh Gilmore weaves a thrilling variety of approaches into her interpretations. Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Post-Colonial, Post-Structuralist, Trauma and Legal theories all inform her readings but never dominate the discussion. Theoretical knowledge is elegantly integrated, rather than applied, allowing Professor Gilmore to achieve a miraculous balance in her use of language: her work will challenge scholars while remaining accessible to any curious reader. I believe this is an ideal text around which to organize an undergraduate or graduate course in the study of fiction and/or autobiography; but Leigh Gilmore's knowledge of psychology and law is so impressive this remarkable work should find its way out of traditional English departments. I hope this is the case. Her understanding of trauma and the creation of imaginative texts--"autobiographies" that break the rules of form and bear no allegiance to literal or verifiable "facts"--could change the way victims of trauma are understood and treated by legal and health care professionals. Leigh Gilmore's ability to enter and unravel each text is testimony to her compassion and wisdom--and proof of her genius. This is profund and daring work, limitless in its vision of the human heart and the hope of transformation through the redemptive power of our own imaginations.

Rating:
Summary: Limitless Vision
Review: THE LIMITS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY is ground-breaking in its originality and range, dramatic in its intensity and depth, and endlessly surprising in its illumination of six fictive autobiographies (SHOT IN THE HEART, WRITTEN ON THE BODY, BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, ANNIE JOHN, LUCY, and MY BROTHER). Leigh Gilmore weaves a thrilling variety of approaches into her interpretations. Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Post-Colonial, Post-Structuralist, Trauma and Legal theories all inform her readings but never dominate the discussion. Theoretical knowledge is elegantly integrated, rather than applied, allowing Professor Gilmore to achieve a miraculous balance in her use of language: her work will challenge scholars while remaining accessible to any curious reader. I believe this is an ideal text around which to organize an undergraduate or graduate course in the study of fiction and/or autobiography; but Leigh Gilmore's knowledge of psychology and law is so impressive this remarkable work should find its way out of traditional English departments. I hope this is the case. Her understanding of trauma and the creation of imaginative texts--"autobiographies" that break the rules of form and bear no allegiance to literal or verifiable "facts"--could change the way victims of trauma are understood and treated by legal and health care professionals. Leigh Gilmore's ability to enter and unravel each text is testimony to her compassion and wisdom--and proof of her genius. This is profund and daring work, limitless in its vision of the human heart and the hope of transformation through the redemptive power of our own imaginations.