Circularity and Circulation in Peter Ackroyd’s Life Narratives: Chatterton, English Music and The House of Doctor Dee
Through the rewriting of the lives of famous past British writers (or characters), contemporary author Peter Ackroyd’s works explore fictional elements while preserving a high level of referential accuracy. This implies a form of circularity as past texts are used again in the present providing acce...
Tallennettuna:
| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
| Julkaistu: |
Études britanniques contemporaines
2024
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| Aiheet: | |
| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Yhteenveto: | Through the rewriting of the lives of famous past British writers (or characters), contemporary author Peter Ackroyd’s works explore fictional elements while preserving a high level of referential accuracy. This implies a form of circularity as past texts are used again in the present providing access to the British literary canon. The past leaves a mark in and on the present that is permanent—as it keeps coming back, it almost becomes circular. This disruption of time is a key characteristic of the mode of the romance. The inheritance and re-enactment of the past call for circularity while the mode of the romance entitles an old literary mode to be used in modern times. Moreover, Ackroyd only writes about vulnerable people enabling the reader to open to the ethical dimension of the notion. Vulnerability calls for circularity through the characters’ going backwards owing to traumatic temporality as well as circulation—conveying the characters’ affects and the ethical dimension of the notion. |
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