Biography and Autobiography: Essays on Irish and Canadian History and Literature

John Kendle is a history professor at St. John’s College, University
of Manitoba.

Bringing together 21 of the papers heard at the 1991 Conference of the
Canadian Irish Association and three others prepared later, this volume
provides an absorbing look at two ever-popular literary forms, biography
and autobiography.

The book is divided into three sections. The first, entitled
“Approaches to Biography,” contains eight essays, three of which are
of particular interest. Conor Cruise O’Brien provides insight into the
challenges facing the would-be biographer of Edmund Burke, while essays
by Jane Mclaughlin Coté and Brenda Maddox address the problems
associated with writing biographies of ignored or little-known
women—Fanny and Anna Parnell and Nora Joyce. Both essays provide
no-nonsense reminders of the extent to which women have been written out
of history, as well as sound advice on reconstituting their lives.

The second section, on autobiography, includes essays on Joyce,
Beckett, Seamus Heaney, and Sean O’Casey. There is a paper on the
nature of autobiography by James Olney and another on writing an
autobiography by Garrett Fitzgerald. The most suggestive essay, Cathal
У Hбinle’s “Deformation of History in Blaskett Autobiographies,”
deals with the borderline of truth and imagination. The final section is
devoted to the Irish in Canada. It includes competent pieces on D’Arcy
McGee, Ogle Gowan, Nicholas Flood Davin, and Isaac Weld, and
entertaining essays by James Reaney (on the Donnellys) and Joan Finnigan
(on Irish “entertainers” in the Ottawa Valley). The best essay in
this section is by Donald Akenson, who discusses the false dichotomies
involved in such categorizations as “fiction”/“non-fiction” and
“academic”/“nonacademic” history, and who points out the
absurdities inherent in accepting politically correct arguments with
respect to voice and appropriation.

This enjoyable and stimulating volume should be read by both Irish and
non-Irish specialists.