'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the
Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe

k 2020

'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe

MIKEŠ, Michal

Základní údaje

Originální název

'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe

Autoři

MIKEŠ, Michal

Vydání

“Narrating Lives” : International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography, 28-29 August 2020, London Centre for International Studies, University of Malta - online. 2020

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

60204 General literature studies

Stát vydavatele

Malta

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Označené pro přenos do RIV

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

Frederick Rolfe; Baron Corvo; biography; autobiograpy; truth; evidence; distortion

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 3. 4. 2021 11:13, Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D.

Anotace

V originále

Frederick Rolfe is by his three biographers—A.J.A. Symons, Donald Weeks, and Miriam Benkovitz—accused, respectively, of distorting truth, mixing reality with fancy, and imposing his illusions on his environment. This presentation inverts such claims by revealing how Rolfe’s biographers (mis)treated evidence based on the underlying image of the subject they strove to portray. This will be demonstrated through letters between John Holden and A.J.A. Symons that cover a key episode in Rolfe’s life. Each of the biographies presents and interprets the Holden letters with a varying degree of distortion that ranges from omissions and misinterpretations to rewriting or inventing whole passages of these letters, such as the account of Rolfe’s ‘chance romances’, a phrase that, even though imagined by Symons, is assimilated in both of Rolfe’s subsequent biographies. It becomes apparent that the biographers have shaped the Holden letters, or question the credibility of previously published information, to the degree that favors their own personal points of view on Rolfe, whether it is that of a literary detective investigating the decline of the author of Hadrian the Seventh (Symonds), an enamored collector defending his possessions (Weeks), or an explorer of the reality behind the obscure myth of Baron Corvo (Benkovitz). Based on this analysis, it is argued that these biographies should be read as an auto/biographical account of the relationship that the biographers formed with Rolfe to properly understand what they say about Rolfe’s life per se.

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1204/2019, interní kód MU

Název: Researching Communication in English: Paradigms, Strategies, Developments - II (Akronym: ReComE 2020)

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Researching Communication in English: Paradigms, Strategies, Developments - II, DO R. 2020_Kategorie A - Specifický výzkum - Studentské výzkumné projekty

Citovat

MIKEŠ, Michal. 'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe. In “Narrating Lives” : International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography, 28-29 August 2020, London Centre for International Studies, University of Malta - online. 2020.

@proceedings{1730874,
   author = {Mikeš, Michal},
   booktitle = {“Narrating Lives” : International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography, 28-29 August 2020, London Centre for International Studies, University of Malta - online.},
   keywords = {Frederick Rolfe; Baron Corvo; biography; autobiograpy; truth; evidence; distortion},
   language = {eng},
   title = {'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe},
   url = {https://life-history.lcir.co.uk/},
   year = {2020}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1730874
AU  - Mikeš, Michal
PY  - 2020
TI  - 'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe
KW  - Frederick Rolfe
KW  - Baron Corvo
KW  - biography
KW  - autobiograpy
KW  - truth
KW  - evidence
KW  - distortion
UR  - https://life-history.lcir.co.uk/
N2  - Frederick Rolfe is by his three biographers—A.J.A. Symons, Donald Weeks, and Miriam Benkovitz—accused, respectively, of distorting truth, mixing reality with fancy, and imposing his illusions on his environment. This presentation inverts such claims by revealing how Rolfe’s biographers (mis)treated evidence based on the underlying image of the subject they strove to portray. This will be demonstrated through letters between John Holden and A.J.A. Symons that cover a key episode in Rolfe’s life. Each of the biographies presents and interprets the Holden letters with a varying degree of distortion that ranges from omissions and misinterpretations to rewriting or inventing whole passages of these letters, such as the account of Rolfe’s ‘chance romances’, a phrase that, even though imagined by Symons, is assimilated in both of Rolfe’s subsequent biographies. It becomes apparent that the biographers have shaped the Holden letters, or question the credibility of previously published information, to the degree that favors their own personal points of view on Rolfe, whether it is that of a literary detective investigating the decline of the author of Hadrian the Seventh (Symonds), an enamored collector defending his possessions (Weeks), or an explorer of the reality behind the obscure myth of Baron Corvo (Benkovitz). Based on this analysis, it is argued that these biographies should be read as an auto/biographical account of the relationship that the biographers formed with Rolfe to properly understand what they say about Rolfe’s life per se.
ER  -

MIKEŠ, Michal. 'Chance Romances' With Evidence : The (Mis)treatment of the Holden Letters in the Biographies of Frederick Rolfe. In \textit{“Narrating Lives” : International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography, 28-29 August 2020, London Centre for International Studies, University of Malta - online.}. 2020.

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