“The Landscape Of Depression”: William Styron and Darkness Visible

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-80
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Berman
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

Darkness visible: A memoir of madness. William Styron. Random House, New York, 1990. 84 pp. $15.95

Depression ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Giustra
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
William Styron

William Styron

Books Abroad ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Henri Peyre ◽  
M. J. Friedman ◽  
A. J. Nigro
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

The Novels of William Styron: From Harmony to History.

1995 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 882
Author(s):  
Kirk Curnutt ◽  
Gavin Cologne-Brookes
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

The Autonomy of Art and the Legitimization of Biofiction: An Aesthetic Turning Point in Twentieth-Century Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-369
Author(s):  
Michael Lackey
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Twentieth Century Literature ◽  
Robert Penn Warren ◽  
William Styron ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
One Year ◽  
Century Literature

Abstract Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after a historical figure, and since the 1990s it has become one of the most dominant literary forms. This is surprising because many prominent scholars, critics, and writers have criticized and even condemned it. This essay hypothesizes that postmodern theories of truth and concomitant transformations in reader sensibilities partly account for the legitimization and now dominance of biofiction. The essay analyzes a 1968 literary debate among Ralph Ellison, William Styron, and Robert Penn Warren, which on the surface concerned the uses of history in literature. But because it happened just one year after the publication of Styron’s controversial novel about Nat Turner, the debate ended up focusing primarily on the nature and value of biofiction. By analyzing the discussion in relation to contemporary formulations about and theorizations of biofiction, this essay illustrates why the forum represents a turning point in literary history, resulting in the decline of a traditional type of literary symbol and the rise of a more anchored and empirical symbol—that is, the type of symbol found in biofiction.

The Unhappiness Muse

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-125
Author(s):  
William Todd Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Jorge Luis Borges ◽  
Jack Kerouac ◽  
William Styron ◽  
Creative Products ◽  
Truman Capote ◽  
Shape Loss

Chapter 6 provides an examination of findings related to the frequency of loss in the lives of artists, and how artists are motivated to shape loss and inner pain into creative products. Loss has been noted in the lives of artists for decades. It comes in the form of death; it comes in other ways, too. The chapter explores questions about the loss–art connection. What is it about loss that mobilizes creativity? What’s the nature of the correlation? Does loss propel art? The author outlines the role of trauma in creativity, with artist examples including Jorge Luis Borges, William Styron, Jack Kerouac, Truman Capote, and Patricia Highsmith.

What Darkness Reveals: A Look at Depression and Suicide in the Works of William Styron

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-214
Author(s):  
Robyn R. Gaier
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

Déplacements dans Sophie's Choice de William Styron : Du texte de la valeur à la valeur du texte

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-341
Author(s):  
Daniel Thomières
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

Whose Intentions? The Posthumous Careers of F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Styron

2016 ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
James L. W. West ◽  
Albrecht Hausmann
Keyword(s):  
William Styron

The Return of Nat Turner in Sixties America

Prospects ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 223-253
Author(s):  
Albert E. Stone
Keyword(s):  
New Orleans ◽  
Oklahoma City ◽  
Robert Penn Warren ◽  
William Styron ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Southern City ◽  
Annus Mirabilis ◽  
Martin Luther King

One of the less publicized public events of that annus mirabilis 1968 was the annual meeting in November of a venerable academic institution, the Southern Historical Association. Convened in New Orleans was a group of intellectuals knit together by, among other professional ties, a common preoccupation with the Southern past. Prominent among these was C. Vann Woodward of Yale, arguably America's most eminent historian of the South. Also present were three famous novelists: Robert Penn Warren, Ralph Ellison, and William Styron. All native-born Southerners (if Oklahoma City, Ellison's birthplace, qualifies as a Southern city), they were there as participants in a panel, chaired by Woodward, on “The Uses of History in Fiction.” The session took place on November 6, the day after the election of Richard Nixon and seven months and two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was probably the liveliest, best-attended event of an otherwise staid meeting of professors. Much of the interest was generated by the topic and the distinguished panelists, but additional electricity was contributed by a cluster of young blacks in the audience. As passionately interested in the subject as were those on the platform, they were in attendance chiefly to question and challenge Styron. It was his use of history in fiction upon which much of the evening's discussion devolved.

William Styron and His Ten Black Critics: A Belated Mediation

1976 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Ernest P. Williams
Keyword(s):  
William Styron
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