Sue Vice – författare

Argues that literary deceptions and false memoirs have particular cultural value and significanceTextual Deceptions considers a wide range of twentieth- and twenty-first century literary works in which the relationship between text and author is not what it seems. By exploring a variety of examples of false or embellished memoirs, purportedly  autobiographical novels that are in fact thoroughly fictional, as well as bogus authorial personae, Sue Vice  discusses whether it is possible to judge veracity by means of textual clues alone. The accounts featured range from ‘misery memoirs’ to Holocaust testimony, poetry purportedly by a Hiroshima survivor, short stories by an Albanian civil servant, fiction by an Aboriginal woman and by a former male prostitute. The book explores both why such texts arise, including consideration of writers’ motives as well as pressures from the publishing industry, readers’ tastes and contemporary social issues, and also how such texts are constructed, concluding with an assessment of their literary merit.Key Features:Analyses the background, literary construction and value of a wide range of recent false memoirs and literary deceptionsConsiders whether internal detail alone is sufficient to identify the truth-value or otherwise of a text, or if other evidence must be invokedExplores the contradiction between contemporary literary critics’ adherence to Roland Barthes’s notion of the ‘death of the author’, and the apparently supreme importance of the role and biography of authors in the scandals that accompany revelations of deception

Examining the controversies that have accompanied the publication of novels representing the Holocaust, this compelling book explores such literature to analyze their violently mixed receptions and what this says about the ethics and practice of millennial Holocaust literature. The novels examined, including some for the first time, are:

* Time''s Arrow by Martin Amis* The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas* The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski* Schindler''s List by Thomas Keneally* Sophie''s Choice by William Styron* The Hand that Signed the Paper by Helen Darville.

Taking issue with the idea that the Holocaust should only be represented factually, this compelling book argues that Holocaust fiction is not only legitimate, but an important genre that it is essential to accept. In a growing area of interest, Sue Vice adds a new, intelligent and contentious voice to the key debates within Holocaust studies.

Examining the controversies that have accompanied the publication of novels representing the Holocaust, this compelling book explores such literature to analyze their violently mixed receptions and what this says about the ethics and practice of millennial Holocaust literature. The novels examined, including some for the first time, are:

* Time''s Arrow by Martin Amis* The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas* The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski* Schindler''s List by Thomas Keneally* Sophie''s Choice by William Styron* The Hand that Signed the Paper by Helen Darville.

Taking issue with the idea that the Holocaust should only be represented factually, this compelling book argues that Holocaust fiction is not only legitimate, but an important genre that it is essential to accept. In a growing area of interest, Sue Vice adds a new, intelligent and contentious voice to the key debates within Holocaust studies.