The double play of mirrors: Anna Kavan, autobiography and self-portraiture

Natalie Ferris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Better known as the author of complex visionary novels of female experience, it is important to note that Anna Kavan was not only a writer, but also an artist, painting throughout her adult life in tandem with her writing. This article considers the nature of the relationship between her literary life and her artistic life, and what her novels tell us about her relationship to the cultivation of her self-image. Famously destroying her personal archive, shirking notable correspondents and recapitulating a mental disquiet across many of her paintings and prose works, it is of little surprise that Kavan’s enigmatic presence often figures more prominently than serious discussion of her literary and artistic achievements. How did this mercurial relationship to identity shape the ways in which Kavan explored her self-image?
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)391-409
JournalWomen: A Cultural Review
Volume28
Issue number4
Early online date20 Nov 2017
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Nov 2017

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Anna Kavan
  • self-portraits
  • autobiography
  • novel
  • painting
  • identity

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