Autobiography and decolonization : modernity, masculinity, and the nation-state / Philip Holden.
"Autobiography and Decolonization critically reexamines the autobiographies of three generations of political leaders in the era of decolonization. Using gender studies and postcolonial theory, Philip Holden shows that these works constitute a special subgenre of autobiography. These "nati...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Madison, Wis. :
University of Wisconsin Press,
[2008]
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| Series: | Wisconsin studies in autobiography.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Table of contents |
| Summary: | "Autobiography and Decolonization critically reexamines the autobiographies of three generations of political leaders in the era of decolonization. Using gender studies and postcolonial theory, Philip Holden shows that these works constitute a special subgenre of autobiography. These "national autobiographies" share narrative elements, in which the process of imagining the nation is enacted through a male protagonist's body and life experiences, thus providing an idealized code of conduct to instruct citizens of the emerging nation." "Holden argues that these examples of life writing have had significant influence on the formation of new, and often profoundly gendered, national identities. These narratives constitute the nation less as an imagined community than as an imagined individual. Moving from the past to the promise of the future, they mediate relationships between public and private, and between individual and collective stories. Ultimately, they show how the construction of modern selfhood is inextricably linked to the construction of a postcolonial polity."--Jacket. |
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| Physical Description: | xi, 279 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-267) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0299226107 9780299226107 |