The Author is Present: Contemporary Bio-Memoir (2010-2020)

传记回忆录是一种新兴的、非常成功的生活写作形式。“传记回忆录”是混合文本，具有第一人称回忆录和传记主题：在海伦麦克唐纳的传记回忆录中，“H是霍克”，我们发现了关于麦克唐纳的信息，就像我们对T. H一样。白色，正如我即将在《现代文学杂志》上发表的文章中所讨论的那样。尽管埃德蒙·德瓦尔、海伦·麦克唐纳、奥利维亚·莱恩、亚当·尼科尔森等人的当代传记回忆录在批评和商业上取得了成功，但对这一体裁的批评和理论讨论却很少。本文认为，这种新的体裁是最清楚地描绘了三个关键的创新生活写作体裁。第一，关注身体、物质性和视觉性的小说。这些文本的特点是传记作者的身体，触觉和视觉的存在，提请注意有关作者的主体性和实践的学科的重要问题。二是作者角色的两大转变。在传记回忆录中，写作主体是叙述中的重要人物，与传记主体截然不同。这对文学理论中长期关注的作者角色提出了质疑。此外，主体作者的存在也促成了生活写作研究中关于合法性和真实性的持久争论。这两个问题都为理解当代作者提供了一条新的途径。第三，传记揭示了电视、社交媒体和名人的强大影响力。在我进行的一次采访中，霍德与斯托顿的非小说出版商Kirty Topiwala指出了作者存在的商业吸引力：“这感觉与博客和社交媒体的时代同步”。在评估生物回忆录的影响时，我们可以揭示文化习惯如何塑造今天的文学，使之成为一个重要的和相关的研究。本论文将对生活写作研究做出及时而又新颖的贡献。

The biographical memoir is a newly emergent and highly successful form of life-writing. 'Bio-memoirs' are hybrid texts featuring both first-person memoir and biographical subjects: in Helen Macdonald's bio-memoir, 'H is for Hawk', we discover as much about Macdonald as we do about T.H. White, as discussed in my forthcoming article in the 'Journal of Modern Literature'. Despite the critical and commercial success of contemporary bio-memoirs by Edmund de Waal, Helen Macdonald, Olivia Laing, Adam Nicolson and others, there is very little critical and theoretical discussion of the genre. This thesis will argue that this new genre is most clearly delineated by three crucial innovations in the genre of life-writing. First, a novel concern with the body, materiality and visuality. These texts are characterized by the physical, haptic and visual presence of the biographer, drawing attention to important questions in the discipline about authorial subjectivity and practice. Second, two major shifts in the role of the author. In bio-memoir, the writing subject is a significant figure in the narrative, quite distinct from the biographical subject. This poses questions to longstanding preoccupations in literary theory over the role of the author. In addition, the presence of the subjective author contributes to enduring debates of legitimacy and authenticity in the study of life-writing. Both these questions provide a new route into understanding contemporary authorship. Third, bio-memoir reveals the powerful influence of television, social media and celebrity. In an interview I conducted, Kirty Topiwala, Non-Fiction Publisher at Hodder & Stoughton, pointed to the commercial appeal of authorial presence: 'It feels in step with the age of blogging and social media'. In evaluating bio-memoir's influences, we can uncover how cultural habits shape today's literature, making this a significant and relevant study. This thesis will make a timely and original contribution to the study of life-writing.