French Autobiography Devices and Desires: Rousseau to Perec

This important book uses close readings of sixteen key French autobiographers to provide a major contribution to theoretical discussions of the genre. Sheringham traces the development of autobiography in French from Rousseau, exploring the differing devices with which autobiographers have dealt with enduring challenges: the difficulty of self-scrutiny, the self as textual construct, the relation to the reader, the problem of memory, and the influence of other texts and people.