Autobiography, a Very Short Introduction, by Laura Marcus #BookReview

Life Writing is incredibly popular these days, and it came as no surprise to me to learn from This Very Short Introduction to Autobiography that Michel Foucault thinks that we have become ‘confessing animals’. The plethora of memoirs, autobiographies and ‘true confessions’ today seems to be evidence of a compulsion to record the complexities of human life, experience and memory, though it has to be said that some life writing seems of more lasting value than others.  Autobiography, a Very Short Introduction by Laura Marcus, a Professor at Oxford, is a fascinating exploration of this kind of writing, starting with the Confessions of St Augustine in the 4th century, through to its modern manifestations in multimedia, autobiographical novels and autofiction.

After the Introduction, there are eight chapters in this VSI (as well as the usual references, suggestions for further reading, and an index).

1. Confession, conversion, testimony
2. The journeying self
3. Autobiographical…