{"product_id":"9783032241207","title":"Surrogate Selves Forging Affective Connections in Autobiographical Trauma Narratives","description":"\u003ch3\u003ePalgrave Studies in Life Writing\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch1\u003eSurrogate Selves\u003c\/h1\u003e\u003ch2\u003eForging Affective Connections in Autobiographical Trauma Narratives\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eDavid Bahr\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eLiterary Criticism \/ Modern \/ General\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003eAn autobiographically inflected work of lifewriting scholarship, t\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003ehis groundbreaking study examines how five autobiographical (or, in Tim O’Brien’s case, autobiographically adjacent) literary texts—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003eThe Things They Carried \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003eby Tim O’Brien; “Kaddish” by Allen Ginsberg; “The White Album” by Joan Didion; and “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” by Art Spiegelman, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003ePsychiatric Tales \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003eby Darryl Cunningham—use distinct techniques of their respective genres—metafiction, poetry, essay, graphic narrative—to communicate the affective experience of psychic pain. This book situates the autobiographical subject\/text as a stand-in (a surrogate self) for readers unable to give voice to their trauma.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv\u003eBuilding on foundational lifewriting scholarship—particularly the work of Philippe Lejeune, Mary Mason, John Paul Eakin, and Nancy K. Miller — this book enlarges the scope of the relational self posited by Mason and subsequent feminist lifewriting scholars and extends the concept of relationality from the autobiographical subject and “chosen other” within an autobiographical text to the autobiographical text and the reader, specifically, here, in autobiographies of trauma.\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(33, 33, 33);\"\u003eAs a former foster child and ward of the state with no surviving family or institutional records, the author has turned to the texts examined here—specifically those of O’Brien, Didion, Ginsberg, and Spiegelman—in the (re)construction of his lost, fragmented, and traumatic history, helping to objectify and articulate embodied memories that otherwise have had no locus. At key moments in the book, the author discusses his autobiography and affective connections to these four works, merging theory and practice. The book is distinctive in using this extended theoretical approach and the strategic use of autobiographical writing and personal history to map how O’Brien, Ginsberg, Didion, Spiegelman, and Cunningham communicate the experience of psychic pain.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Bahr\u003c\/strong\u003e is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City University of New York (CUNY), USA. His scholarship, journalism, and creative writing have appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times; The New York Times Book Review; GQ; Poets \u0026amp; Writers; Prairie Schooner; Affective Disorder and the Writing Life: The Melancholic Muse; Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching With Graphic Narratives; American Creative Nonfiction, Critical Insights Series; \u003c\/em\u003eModern Language Association’s \u003cem\u003eApproaches to Teaching Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Palgrave Handbook of Masculinities in Contemporary Anglophone Literatures.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e17 August 2026\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSpringer Nature Switzerland\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImprint: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePalgrave Macmillan\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9783032241207\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormat: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePage Count: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e233\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Springer Nature Switzerland","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46613063073932,"sku":"9783032241207","price":125.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0710\/9545\/1788\/files\/9783032241207.jpg?v=1780599607","url":"https:\/\/fh90cf-fv.myshopify.com\/products\/9783032241207","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}