At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts
This article argues that Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts (1977) is characterised by a deep and unresolved tension between the deployment of truth-telling rhetoric – textual appeals to readerly credulity customarily such as acknowledgements of the limits of authorial memory and the inclusion o...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/viatica, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Viatica
2023
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| Sujets: | |
| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:viatica_2893 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:viatica_2893 https://doi.org/10.4000/viatica.2893 urn:doi:10.4000/viatica.2893 en https://journals.openedition.org/viatica/2893 2023-07-05T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/ls1w https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts Viatica Université Clermont Auvergne info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2275-0827 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/viatica Hannigan, Tim récit de voyage journal de voyage fictionnalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) récit de faits travel writing fictionalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) truth-telling travel diaries This article argues that Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts (1977) is characterised by a deep and unresolved tension between the deployment of truth-telling rhetoric – textual appeals to readerly credulity customarily such as acknowledgements of the limits of authorial memory and the inclusion of excerpts from journals – and the literal incredibility of its detail. A further complication introduced by Leigh Fermor’s inclusion in the text of excerpts from his youthful journals – notionally unedited but in fact partially fictionalised, as revealed by an examination of the archives. Though typically regarded as nonfiction, A Time of Gifts is, the article argues, a highly ambiguous text for which neither ‘fact convention’ nor ‘aesthetic convention’ are adequate modes of reception. Cet article propose de voir dans A Time of Gifts (1977) de Patrick Leigh Fermor une œuvre caractérisée par une tension profonde et non résolue entre le déploiement d’une rhétorique de la vérité – on y trouve les marques habituelles de l’appel à la confiance du lecteur : l’auteur admet les limites de sa mémoire, inclut des extraits de journaux dans son texte – et le caractère littéralement non crédible des détails donnés. Une complication supplémentaire est introduite par l’inclusion, dans le texte de Leigh Fermor, d’extraits de ses journaux de jeunesse, théoriquement non modifiés mais en fait partiellement romancés, comme le révèle l’examen de ses archives. Bien que typiquement considéré comme une œuvre non fictionnelle, A Time of Gifts est un texte d’une grande ambiguïté sur ce plan ; cet article montre que sa réception ne relève ni d’une convention de lecture « factuelle », ni d’une convention « esthétique ». |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
récit de voyage journal de voyage fictionnalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) récit de faits travel writing fictionalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) truth-telling travel diaries |
| spellingShingle |
récit de voyage journal de voyage fictionnalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) récit de faits travel writing fictionalisation Leigh Fermor (Patrick) truth-telling travel diaries Hannigan, Tim At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| description |
This article argues that Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts (1977) is characterised by a deep and unresolved tension between the deployment of truth-telling rhetoric – textual appeals to readerly credulity customarily such as acknowledgements of the limits of authorial memory and the inclusion of excerpts from journals – and the literal incredibility of its detail. A further complication introduced by Leigh Fermor’s inclusion in the text of excerpts from his youthful journals – notionally unedited but in fact partially fictionalised, as revealed by an examination of the archives. Though typically regarded as nonfiction, A Time of Gifts is, the article argues, a highly ambiguous text for which neither ‘fact convention’ nor ‘aesthetic convention’ are adequate modes of reception. |
| author |
Hannigan, Tim |
| author_facet |
Hannigan, Tim |
| author_sort |
Hannigan, Tim |
| title |
At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| title_short |
At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| title_full |
At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| title_fullStr |
At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| title_full_unstemmed |
At the Brink of the Abyss: Incredibility and the Rhetoric of Truth-Telling in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts |
| title_sort |
at the brink of the abyss: incredibility and the rhetoric of truth-telling in patrick leigh fermor’s a time of gifts |
| publisher |
Viatica |
| publishDate |
2023 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/viatica |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/viatica.2893 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/viatica/2893 |
| _version_ |
1877292740826365952 |