The Unhappiness Muse

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.

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

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.

Tentatives de réparation narcissique suite à la perte d’un parent à l’adolescence

À partir de l’œuvre de l’écrivain, William Styron, nous évoquons le traumatisme représenté par la perte d’un parent à l’adolescence et les différentes stratégies adoptées pour y faire face. Dans le récit autobiographique « Face aux ténèbres. Chronique d’une folie », écrit à l’âge de 65 ans, Styron rend compte de la dépression mélancolique qu’il vient de traverser. Cette chronique se termine par l’évocation de la mort de sa mère quand il avait treize ans, souvenir soudainement retrouvé après avoir écouté une mélodie de Brahms, qu’elle avait autrefois chanté. Styron introduit alors l’hypothèse d’un deuil gelé à la suite de cette perte, puis il évoque le désir de guérir qui accompagne cette reviviscence. Dans trois nouvelles publiées par la suite, « Un matin de Virginie – Trois histoires de jeunesse », Styron poursuit ce travail de mémoire et suit le fil associatif de ses souvenirs, reflétant ses expériences à l’âge de vingt, dix et treize ans. L’auteur donne des clés pour comprendre ce qui avait pu être source de souffrance, les défenses pour y échapper, les solutions successivement trouvées pour affronter – ou non – ce traumatisme : l’engagement dans l’armée, l’écriture, le recours à l’alcool. Ces nouvelles témoignent de la reprise tardive du travail de deuil suspendu à l’adolescence.

An Education in Intensity

The chapter opens with Roth’s 1959 marriage to Margaret (Maggie) Williams, a divorced mother of two from the Midwest Roth met at the University of Chicago. The impact of the marriage on his self-esteem and mental health, and its effect on his early efforts to shape his developing publishing career, receives special attention. But at the same time, while facing personal challenges, he appeared in the Paris Review, began a new friendship with its editor, George Plimpton, and oversaw the appearance of his first book, Goodbye, Columbus. A year in Rome on a fellowship and a new publisher (Random House replacing Houghton Mifflin) furthered his advances, while he also began to teach at the University of Iowa’s prestigious Writers’ Workshop and then Princeton. New friendships with William Styron and Donald Klopfer of Random House, and work with his early editor Joe Fox, soon shaped the direction of his writing. He also started psychoanalysis, necessary to maintain his mental balance as the relationship with Maggie unraveled and a divorce proved to be impossible. The chapter also examines the reception of his first novel, Letting Go.

Disputed Passage

The summer of 1990 found Bradbury slowly revisiting his screenplay for a new Fahrenheit 451 adaptation, and the successful run of a new musical production of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit created by the popular composer and singer Jose Feliciano. Chapter 28 continues with Bradbury’s collection of essays on various creative topics collected as Yestermorrow, where he explored the nature of metaphor and the value of child-like reverie to his creative process. The chapter describes Bradbury’s role as a judge in the controversial Turner Tomorrow Award in June 1991, where he took issue with the views of fellow judges William Styron and Peter Matthiessen and earned the gratitude of prize founder Ted Turner. A final visit with Federico Fellini in Rome concludes the chapter.

Looking for Law in The Confessions of Nat Turner

From Harriet Beecher Stowe to William Styron and Sharon Ewell Foster, from Kyle Baker to Nate Parker and others, American popular culture has found Nat Turner endlessly fascinating. The fascination of course extends to historians. Particularly in recent years, scholars have dug deeply into the local history of what came to be called "The Turner Rebellion." The result is a greatly enriched archive. Still, much of what is known of the event itself and of its eponymous leader-and hence the manner in which both event and leader are portrayed-remains dependent on Thomas Ruffin Gray's famous pamphlet The Confessions of Nat Turner. Naturally one must ask whether a hastily written twenty-page pamphlet rushed into print by an opportunistic white lawyer, down on his luck and hoping to cash in on Turner's notoriety, actually deserves to be treated as empirically reliable access to the mentalités of those engaged in executing an "insurrectory movement." Should the pamphlet survive that test, a second question immediately surfaces: precisely what is it that the pamphlet evidences, and how? This essay seeks an answer through consideration of a number of recent literary analyses of the genre of Gray's pamphlet and through application of the concept of genre to Turner's own words.