Biofiction Studies – serie

Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after an actual historical figure, and it has become a dominant literary form over the last 35 years. What has not yet been scholarly acknowledged or documented is that the Irish played a crucial role in the origins, evolution, rise, and now dominance of biofiction. Michael Lackey first examines the groundbreaking biofictions that Oscar Wilde and George Moore authored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the best biographical novels about Wilde (by Peter Ackroyd and Colm Tóibín). He then focuses on contemporary authors of biofiction (Sabina Murray, Graham Shelby, Anne Enright, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who Lackey has interviewed for this work) who use the lives of prominent Irish figures (Roger Casement and Eliza Lynch) to explore the challenges of seizing and securing a life-promoting form of agency within a colonial and patriarchal context. In conclusion, Lackey briefly analyzes biographical novels by Peter Carey and Mary Morrissy to illustrate why agency is of central importance for the Irish, and why that focus mandated the rise of the biographical novel, a literary form that mirrors the constructed Irish interior.

Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after an actual historical figure, and it has become a dominant literary form over the last 35 years. What has not yet been scholarly acknowledged or documented is that the Irish played a crucial role in the origins, evolution, rise, and now dominance of biofiction. Michael Lackey first examines the groundbreaking biofictions that Oscar Wilde and George Moore authored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the best biographical novels about Wilde (by Peter Ackroyd and Colm Tóibín). He then focuses on contemporary authors of biofiction (Sabina Murray, Graham Shelby, Anne Enright, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who Lackey has interviewed for this work) who use the lives of prominent Irish figures (Roger Casement and Eliza Lynch) to explore the challenges of seizing and securing a life-promoting form of agency within a colonial and patriarchal context. In conclusion, Lackey briefly analyzes biographical novels by Peter Carey and Mary Morrissy to illustrate why agency is of central importance for the Irish, and why that focus mandated the rise of the biographical novel, a literary form that mirrors the constructed Irish interior.

The title of this book, Derivative Lives, alludes to the challenge of finding one’s way within the contemporary market of virtually limitless information and claims to veracity. Amid this profusion of options, it is easy to feel lost in spaces of uncertainty where biographical truth teeters between the real and the imaginative. The title thus also points to the prolific market of biographical novels that openly and intentionally play in the speculative space between the real and the fictional. Drawing on theories of risk and uncertainty, Derivative Lives considers the surge in biofiction in Spain and globally, relating literary expression to concepts such as circumstantiality, derivatives, speculation, and game studies.

The title of this book, Derivative Lives, alludes to the challenge of finding one’s way within the contemporary market of virtually limitless information and claims to veracity. Amid this profusion of options, it is easy to feel lost in spaces of uncertainty where biographical truth teeters between the real and the imaginative. The title thus also points to the prolific market of biographical novels that openly and intentionally play in the speculative space between the real and the fictional. Drawing on theories of risk and uncertainty, Derivative Lives considers the surge in biofiction in Spain and globally, relating literary expression to concepts such as circumstantiality, derivatives, speculation, and game studies.

Shows how after the Nazis came to power, prominent exile writers used biofiction to provide readers with a means of identifying root causes of political oppression. There were biofictions before the 20th century, but the literary form surged in the 1930s, especially among writers who fled Europe to escape the Nazis. What would be the best way to challenge and counteract the Nazis’ oppressive political agenda? This was a question those writers sought to answer. And as Michael Lackey argues, one answer revolved around the literary form of biofiction – or literature that fictionalizes and metaphorizes the life of a real person – which allowed exiled writers to identify root causes of political oppression and to propose healthier and more socially just ways of thinking and doing. By charting the rise, evolution, and legitimization of biofiction from Friedrich Nietzsche through Lion Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann, German Exile Biofiction sets the stage for a more compelling analysis and understanding of the major biofictions from the 1930s, which foreground the Nazis’ Christian nationalist political agenda. Using the most up-to-date scholarship about biofiction and the Nazis’ Christian nationalism, this study offers new and more grounded approaches to the way biofiction functions in relation to the political and how it can be used to expose and combat dangerous political leaders like Hitler and the Nazis. But more than that, German Exile Biofiction shows how metaphorizing lives can enable readers and audiences today to counteract the dangers of contemporary Christian nationalisms.

Explores biopics about moments of crisis for the House of Windsor and how these productions, along with Netflix’s long-running series The Crown, both represent and enact the Royal Family’s post-crises rehabilitation.Biopics of the House of Windsor examines screen representations of the British reigning monarch and those in the direct line of succession. Focusing on high-profile 21st-century productions that intervene in and perpetuate cultural memories of the Windsors, Bethany Layne explores the royal biopic's relation to historical truth – its generic truth contract, especially around its attraction to and depiction of moments of crises – and its connection to the genres of biography and biofiction.Layne argues that the films in question depict the royal family’s negotiation of moments of crisis via the twinned strategies of exile and policing. While expulsions ensure the institution’s survival, policing safeguards its popularity by reconfiguring the audience’s envy and potential class resentment as pity. Chapters discuss films, musicals, and TV productions, asking which representations of the British royal family are privileged, and how do these differ between a British drama (The King’s Speech), a work by a Chilean director (Spencer) and Netflix’s transnational The Crown. In doing so, Biopics of the House of Windsor questions how the genre functions to disseminate British national identity across the globe.

Seventeen authors of the world’s most famous biofictions discuss their works with literary scholars to answer vitally important questions about the relevance and power of literature.How do authors metaphorize the life of a real person in order to diagnose cultural sicknesses and offer readers healthier and more just ways of thinking and doing? How can biofiction fictionalize the life of a person in order to give readers an existential map for becoming a more autonomous and agential being? How can biofiction contribute to human happiness? How can it combat mental illness? World Biofictionalists in Translation brings together some of the most prominent creative writers across the globe in order to explore the value and power of literature, specifically biofiction, to transform and improve human lives; to encourage and promote interpersonal, intercultural, and international communication; and to generate interest in non-English speaking writers, cultures, and countries.With a cross-cultural and transnational focus, these interviews seek to contribute to the conditions for a more informed, humane, and tolerant global order. But more importantly, this collection of interviews illustrates how we are better as people and nations when we collaborate on the project of engaging literature to better understand, define, and create ourselves as individuals, cultures, and countries.