The Thick-Skinned Art of John Updike: `From the Journal of a Leper'

Author: Prosser, J.

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 January 2001 , pp. 182-191(10)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

This essay examines the significance of skin in Updike's work, beginning with his representation of psoriasis in his short story, `From the Journal of a Leper'. The conception of skin as an aesthetic or writing surface is considered, as well as the interfaces between autobiography and fiction, self and other, and finally men and women in Updike's writing.

Keywords: skin; Updike; psoriasis; short story; From the Journal of a Leper; autobiography

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Leeds

Publication date: 2001-01-01

More about this publication?

A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.