American Authorship and Autobiographical Narrative explores the contorted and often conflicted relationship writers have with their images and reputations as authors, particularly when they choose to write about themselves and their personal lives. By analyzing the autobiographical nonfiction of Norman Mailer, John Edgar Wideman, and Dave Eggers in light of theories of authorship, autobiography, and celebrity, this book considers the art of literary self-representation practiced under the forces of publishing''s business imperatives and mass culture''s insatiable appetite for personal stories about public figures. Contributing to ongoing conversations about the explosion of popular and critical interest in life narrative as well as those about relation of an author to his text, this book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of contemporary American literature, life writing studies, and authorship and publishing history, as well as the many serious and dedicated readers of Eggers, Wideman, and Mailer.
