Ireland, the Irish, and the Rise of Biofiction

Michael Lackey is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including of The Modernist God State: A Literary Study of the Nazis’ Christian Reich (Bloomsbury, 2012), Truthful Fictions: Conversations with American Biographical Novelists (2014), and The American Biographical Novel (2016).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Ireland, the Irish, and BiofictionI. Historical Context for the Rise of Biofiction1. Oscar Wilde and the Invention of a Life-Creating Fiction2. George Moore’s The Brook Kerith and the Scandal of the Biographical NovelII. Irish Figures as Biofictional Symbols3. Roger Casement and the Transnational Origins of “Irishness” 4. Traumatized Agency in Eliza Lynch Biographical NovelsIII. Theoretical Reflections about Biofiction5. A Poetics of the Biographical Novel: Agency, History, Fiction6. Why Names Matter: Concluding Reflections about Autonomy and BiofictionAppendix: Interview with Mario Vargas LlosaBibliographyIndex

A leading scholar of biofiction studies, Lackey here offers a comprehensive history of the rise of biofiction, its aesthetics, and its sociopolitical implications. His marvelous exploration of Irish authors’ foundational contributions to biographical fiction carefully differentiates biographical from historical fiction, tracing the wider significance of that distinction through the subject novels’ historical contexts. Lackey deftly intersperses the relevant history of critical, philosophical, and literary meditations on the nature of art with nuanced, illuminating readings of major examples of the genre. As wide-ranging and inclusive as it is focused and insightful, this study not only deepens our understanding of biofiction, but also opens new and exciting directions in the field of Irish Studies.