Dossier littérature anglaise le "je" de l'écrivain

The notion of the I of the writer and writing as a game refers to the autobiography, that is the story of a person told by this person, it's narrative is in first person. Indeed we have many possibilities to make an autobiography : the novel, the personal diary, the self-portrait or the oral form.  .  Theses forms are differents and various for pass differents emotions because neither life is similary at one other. Thus, the author has the choice of his support who correspond most with his life. For illustrate this notion I had chose three opposites documents :

First, The painting The triple self-portrait. It was published in 1960 by Norman Rockwell a polyvalent artist who belonged at the hyperrelist movment which consisted in making paintings and sculpture which resembled a high-resolution photograph. Althought he made more than 430 covers of newpapers.

To begin, I am going to do a little description of the painting :

• We can spot Norman Rockwell's back. This latter is sat on a yellow and red stool. He faces a white painting and leans on the left side in order to watch his image in a mirror located on a chair, on his left. We can also see a wastebasket with smoke. This smoke can be an autobiographic reference. One day, the painter has burned his wastebasket with the ashes of his pipe. His burning caused the loss of many personnal objects like historics costums, the military helmet may be a reference of this autobiographic event.
• We can also see a mise en abyme in this painting. This process consist to represent an artwok in a same type of artwork. The painting represents the artist looking himself in a mirror and realised his self-portrait. Morever, Norman Rockwell represents four others portraits of artists who have practised the same pocess : Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasson and Durer.
• This painting ask aslo the question on the art, in this triple self-portrait the three representations of the artist are differents Which one is true ? In the portrait of the canvas the artist seems more young ans he don't have glasses. Here, the artist say that make a self-portrait it's lie for sublimate the reality.
• In this document we can find the notion of self-mockery. The artist laught at himself, from his posture and his age. Indeed we can find a contrast between the military elements and the disorder.

My second document is an extract of a novel name's « An angel at my table » written by Janet Frame. Janet Frame was born in New Zeland in a working class family. Ith a love of words, litterature and nature. Dianosed schizophrenic after a suicide attempt she was locked in a psychiatric hospital, but wasn't schizophrenic. His autobiographie talk about tragic events of this life like the died of her sisters, the disease of his brother (his epilecptic). In this document she manifest her melancoly and she explains what for write you have to be sad, she said Allan Edgar Poe was unhealthy and a very good poet.

She said also that a perfect autobiography doesn't exist because memories fade with the years and are ephemerals.

My personal document is the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin an essayist, diplomat, writer and inventor.  Undoubtely, his autobiography is riddled with faults, it is very muddled, particularly towards the end. The work often takes an arrogant, condescending tone, yet it praises the virtue of humility. Why this autobiography is a classic ?

- There are several reasons, one of which is because it establishes in literary form the first example of the fulfillment of the American Dream. Franklin demonstrates the possibilities of life in the New World through his own rise from the lower middle class.Furthermore, he asserts that he achieved his success through a solid work ethic. He proved that even undistinguished persons in Boston can, through industry, become great figures of importance in America.

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