Title: I do, I undo, I redo : the textual genesis of modernist selves in Hopkins, Yeats, Conrad, Forster, Joyce, and Woolf /
Authors: Fordham, Finn.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Hopkins, Gerard Manley, Criticism, Textual.; Yeats, W. B. Criticism, Textual.; Conrad, Joseph, Criticism, Textual.; Forster, E. M. Criticism, Textual.; Joyce, James, Criticism, Textual.; Woolf, Virginia, Criticism, Textual.; English literature Criticism, Textual.; English literature Criticism, Textual.; Authorship Psychological aspects; Self in literature.
Abstract: "I do I undo I redo examines the writing processes of six modernist authors: Hopkins, Yeats, Conrad, Forster, Joyce, and Woolf. Finn Fordham explores how these processes relate to selfhood and subjectivity, both of which came under intense scrutiny during the modernist period. The study addresses several questions: what are the relations between writing and subjectivity? To what extent is a 'self' considered as a completed product like a book? How are selves, if considered as 'in process' or as 'constructs', reflections of the processes of writing? How do the experiences of writing inform thematic concerns within texts about identity?" "Three theoretical and methodological chapters (about 'genetic' criticism, about studies of selfhood within modernism, and the 'effacement' of manuscripts in philosophies of the subject) are followed by chapters on each author. A different topic is linked to each - compression, selection, doubling, hollowing out, multiplying, and class. The study comprises new material from archives, and many fresh ideas stemming from the combination of different critical approaches: genetic, psychological, political criticism, and close reading."--Jacket.
Contents: Texts and selves in process: writing between self and selflessness -- Modernism and the self: inside-out -- The self in Descartes and Heidegger: overlooking drafts, erasing process -- Hopkins and compression -- The young Yeats and selection -- Conrad's 'Heart of darkness': doubling and doubling back -- Forster's A passage to India: blurring and hollowing out -- Joyce's Ulysses and multiplying personalities -- Woolf's The waves and writing classes.