{"product_id":"how-our-lives-become-stories-how-photography-complicates-the-picture-paperback","title":"How Our Lives Become Stories: How Photography Complicates the Picture - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003ePaul John Eakin\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe popularity of such books as Frank McCourt's \u003ci\u003eAngela's Ashes\u003c\/i\u003e, Mary Karr's \u003ci\u003eThe Liars' Club\u003c\/i\u003e, and Kathryn Harrison's controversial \u003ci\u003eThe Kiss\u003c\/i\u003e, has led columnists to call ours \"the age of memoir.\" And while some critics have derided the explosion of memoir as exhibitionistic and self-aggrandizing, literary theorists are now beginning to look seriously at this profusion of autobiographical literature. Informed by literary, scientific, and experiential concerns, \u003ci\u003eHow Our Lives Become Stories\u003c\/i\u003e enhances knowledge of the complex forces that shape identity, and confronts the equally complex problems that arise when we write about who we think we are. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing life writings as examples--including works by Christa Wolf, Art Spiegelman, Oliver Sacks, Henry Louis Gates, Melanie Thernstrom, and Philip Roth--Paul John Eakin draws on the latest research in neurology, cognitive science, memory studies, developmental psychology, and related fields to rethink the very nature of self-representation. After showing how the experience of living in one's body shapes one's identity, he explores relational and narrative modes of being, emphasizing social sources of identity, and demonstrating that the self and the story of the self are constantly evolving in relation to others. Eakin concludes by engaging the ethical issues raised by the conflict between the authorial impulse to life writing and a traditional, privacy-based ethics that such writings often violate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaul John Eakin is Ruth N. Halls Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University. He is also the author of \u003ci\u003eThe New England Girl: Cultural Ideals in Hawthorne, Stowe, Howells, and James\u003c\/i\u003e;\u003ci\u003e Fictions in Autobiography: Studies in the Art of Self-Invention\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eTouching the World: Reference in Autobiography\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Ethics of Life Writing\u003c\/i\u003e, also from Cornell; \u003ci\u003eOn Autobiography\u003c\/i\u003e by Philippe Lejeune, and \u003ci\u003eAmerican Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.59 x 8.47 x 5.49 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 15, 1999\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42131393216647,"sku":"9780801485985","price":62.91,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/ffa75ea0bdf19a9979e6e06027fa119c.webp?v=1732618599","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/how-our-lives-become-stories-how-photography-complicates-the-picture-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}