Research Catalog

Title

Sex, lies, and autobiography : the ethics of confession / James O'Rourke.

Author

O'Rourke, James L.

Publication

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 215 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"In Sex, Lies, and Autobiography James O'Rourke explores the relationships between literary form and ethics, revealing how autobiographical texts are able to confront readers with the moral complexities of everyday life. Tracing the ethical legacy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions in a series of English-language texts, the author shows how Rousseau's doubts about the possibility of ethical behavior shadow the first-person narratives of five canonic works: William Wordsworth's Prelude, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Villette, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Offering a fascinating new way of thinking about ethics through literature, Sex, Lies, and Autobiography challenges the most fundamental principles of the philosophical study of ethics, revealing the innate difference between morality in life and morality in literature."--Jacket.

Subject

• Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778
• Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovič 1899-1977
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 1712-1778
• Zielke-Nadkarni, Andrea 1956-
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Rezeption > Wordsworth, William <Schriftsteller> / The prelude, or growth of a poet's mind
• Wordsworth, William <Schriftsteller> > Rezeption > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques / Les confessions
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Rezeption > Nabokov, Vladimir V. / Lolita
• Nabokov, Vladimir V. > Rezeption > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques / Les confessions
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Rezeption > Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft / Frankenstein
• Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. > Rezeption > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques / Les confessions
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Rezeption > Brontë, Charlotte / Jane Eyre
• Brontë, Charlotte. > Rezeption > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques / Les confessions
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Rezeption > Brontë, Charlotte / Villette
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. > Ethik > Rezeption > Autobiographische Literatur > Englisch > Geschichte 1900-2000
• Confessions (Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
• Lolita (Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich)
• 1800-1899
• English literature > 19th century > History and criticism
• Self in literature
• Autobiographical fiction > History and criticism
• Autobiography in literature
• Confession in literature
• Ethics in literature
• Sex in literature
• Autobiography
• Autobiographies as Topic
• autobiography (genre)
• Autobiographical fiction
• English literature
• Bekenntnisroman
• Ethik Motiv
• Ich-Roman
• Autobiografieën
• Bekentenisliteratuur
• Ethiek
• Seks
• Ethik > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques > Les confessions > Rezeption > Autobiographische Literatur > Englisch > Geschichte 1900-2000
• Autobiographische Literatur > Englisch > Geschichte 1900-2000 > Rezeption > Ethik > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques > Les confessions
• Englisch > Autobiographische Literatur > Rezeption > Ethik > Rousseau, Jean-Jacques > Les confessions. > Geschichte 1900-2000

Genre/Form

• Autobiography
• Autobiographies.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-212) and index.

Contents

Supplements : Rousseau, libertinism, and guilt -- What is a poet? A man who is more -- "Nothing more unnatural" : Frankenstein and the legacy of Rousseau -- From Jane Eyre to Villette : the autobiography of a writer -- From seduction to fantasy : "Lolita, or the confession of a white widowed male" -- Afterword : politics is the future, ethics is now.

ISBN

• 0813925126
• 9780813925127

LCCN

2005016401

OCLC

• ocm60644690
• 60644690
• SCSB-14130783

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library