Reading Life Writing

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This anthology is inadequate on almost every count.

First, it is primarily devoted to feminist life-writing and should be
so titled. Kadar’s excuse is that “the quintessential male writer
has traditionally undervalued self-disclosure in the life
genres”—but that is an unacceptable sexist generalization. The
selections are heavily weighted toward 20th-century women writers, and
writings by men are often included (Chaucer, Defoe, Richardson) just
because they portray women. Earlier periods are spottily represented (a
“slave narrative” is the sole representative of the 19th century).
The majority of the sections are excerpts (sometimes even excerpts from
excerpts); this is to some extent inevitable, but the impression of
fragmentation is still disturbing.

Kadar’s introductory comments on her selections are rarely
satisfactory. Biographical information is sometimes provided, sometimes
not. The contexts and precise nature of the extracts (e.g., whether they
are complete segments) are seldom made clear. Some extracts are
annotated; others (which badly need it) are not. Occasionally, page
references are given to unidentified books. Reference is made to chapter
and verse numbers in the New Testament extracts, but the
(unacknowledged) translation reproduced does not include them!

Some of her information is in fact misinformation. Margaret Atwood, we
are told, “is primarily known as a novelist.” By whom? Not by those
familiar with her work. Her poems, from The Journals of Susanna Moodie,
“are journal-entries, all part (one assumes) of one journal.” Why,
then, the plural title? And her description of Joy Kogawa’s A Choice
of Dreams as “an anthology” suggests that Kadar has an uncertain
grasp of basic terminology. Kadar’s prose itself is frequently
enigmatic, sometimes barbarous (“us, the reader”), and occasionally
even incoherent (I can make no sense of the final paragraph introducing
Sheila Watson on page 338; other instances could be cited.)

Altogether, then, this is a disaster area. Students using this
anthology will be thoroughly confused. What does Oxford University Press
think it is doing?