Through a critical discussion of an array of written and visual texts that feature a writer as a main character, Geniuses, Addicts, and Scribbling Women: Portraits of the Writer in Popular Culture argues for a more nuanced conception of the role of writers in society, their relationships with their reading publics, the portrayals and realities of their labor, and the construction of a "writing" identity. Expounding upon the critical genre of authorship studies, the contributors take on complex issues such as economics, professionalization, gender politics, and writing pedagogy to shape the dialogue around the nature of representation and the practice of narrative. Ultimately, contributors consider the ways in which debates over art, craft, authorial celebrity, and the literary marketplace define the parameters of culture in a given period and influence the work of culture producers. The implications of such an analysis reveal much about the status and value of creative writers and their work. This collection covers a wide range of historical periods offering a complex understanding of representations of writers from the medieval period to the Netflix era. Such an evolution challenges the perception of the writer as a monolithic presence in society and highlights its multiplicity, diversity, and its transformations through cultural and political movements.
Cynthia Cravens is associate professor of English at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Introduction: Geniuses, Addicts, and Scribbling Women: Portraits of the Writer in Popular Culture Cynthia Cravens Chapter One: Finding Their Way: Coming of Age as a Writer in John Irving's The World According to Garp and A Widow for One Year Megan A. Anderson Chapter Two: Traveling with Writers: Gender, Genre, and Creativity in Bleaker House and Less Julie Barst Chapter Three: The Narrating Serpent: Two Distinct Representations of Authorship in Thomas Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller Sarah Briest Chapter Four: Public Personas of Dangerous Men: Killing Constructed Identities with Suicide by Sequel Christopher Burlingame Chapter Five: Follow the Lead: The Evolving Story of Lois Lane and Her Writing Sandra Eckard Chapter Six: Scribbling Pleasure: Undertaking the Sentence of Desire Amy B. Hagenrater-Gooding Chapter Seven: Jane-as-Fanny: Patricia Rozema's Woman Writer in Mansfield Park Melanie D. Holm Chapter Eight: From Silly Lady Novelists to Celebrity Male Modernists: Gender and the Representation of Authorship in Fiction 1850-1949 Elizabeth King Chapter Nine: Re-gendering Genre: Self-Conscious Supernaturalism in Muriel Spark's The Comforters Alexandra Oxner Chapter Ten: The Evolution of Daredevil's Karen Page: From Damsel-in-Distress to Writer-Hero Gian Pagnucci
