Abstract:

Starting from the epistemological and generic question as to how first readers of William Hale White/Mark Rutherford's Autobiography and Deliverance could decide whether what they were reading was intended as autobiography or as fiction (however autobiographical), various possible factual and fictional earlier models for Rutherford are discussed (Cowper and W. D. Arnold as well as J. S. Mill and J. A. Froude). This is as a prelude to recontextualizing Rutherford alongside works by A. C. Benson, George Gissing and Edmund Gosse largely in the light provided by the revealingly titled and remarkably perceptive ‘Autobiografiction’ (1906, Stephen Reynolds), which identifies a particularly modern form: a combination of ‘what we may believe to be genuine spiritual experiences’ with ‘a more or less fictitious but very credible autobiography’.

Keywords: Autobiography; Deliverance; Cowper; W. D. Arnold; J. S. Mill; J. A. Froude; A. C. Benson; George Gissing; Edmund Gosse; Autobiografiction; Stephen Reynolds

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Keele