Where does Ben Lerner teach?
Brooklyn College
Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.
Is the Topeka school autobiographical?
As in his previous novels, this story is semi-autobiographical and the structure is complex, but “The Topeka School” is no Escher sketch of literary theory. Its complexity is beautifully subsumed in a compelling plot about two psychotherapists and their son.
Is Proust an Autofiction?
2. In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927): Scholars consider this seven-volume work by the French novelist Marcel Proust an early version of autofiction. It involves many details and characters from Proust’s own life, although much else is fictionalized.
What happens at the end of The Topeka School?
The final chapter takes place in 2019 and follows Adam, now a father of two young girls, as he and his wife take their family to Topeka from their home in New York City to give a reading of Adam’s work.
Who is Klaus in The Topeka School?
The most eloquent explanation of the male malaise in The Topeka School comes from Klaus, Jonathan’s mentor and surrogate father, an aged analyst who survived while his parents and three sisters were murdered at Auschwitz: On the one hand, Klaus . . .
What is the point of Autofiction?
Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to modify significant details and characters, using fictive subplots and imagined scenarios with real life characters in the service of a search for self.
Why is Autofiction popular?
A cloak of invincibility for writers
“Autofiction allows them to write about intimate, sensitive, personal experiences, which may expose them to shaming and humiliating comments,” says Koivisto. It is especially appealing to many authors who have been marginalised – due to their ethnicity or sexuality, for example.
Who is Darren in The Topeka School?
Plot summary
One of Adam’s classmates, Darren Eberheart, a social misfit and patient of Adam’s father, also features in a sequence of shorter chapters that culminates in him seriously injuring a girl at a party who rejected his romantic advances after years of bullying by his peers.
What is the book The Topeka School about?
Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths: Jane’s reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan’s marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity.
Who is Sima in the Topeka school?
Sima is Jane’s closest friend and interlocutor. After Jane recovers her memory, their conversations soon develop into a quasi–training analysis, and it is during one of these sessions that the details of the trauma break through.
What is the novel The Topeka school about?
The Topeka School is a 2019 novel by the American novelist and poet Ben Lerner about a high school debate champion from Topeka, Kansas in the 1990s. The book is considered both a bildungsroman and a work of autofiction, as the narrative incorporates many details from Lerner’s own life.
What is the difference between memoir and autofiction?
The French novelist and literature scholar, Catherine Cusset (2012) writes that autofiction differs from memoir. She states that, “A memoir tells the reader what happened. The writing is usually clear, simple, factual, and descriptive.” Autofiction, on the other hand, brings the reader inside what happened.
What is the difference between autobiography and autofiction?
In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography. Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction.
Is writing a memoir narcissistic?
In this sense, many memoirs are not only narcissistic (self-reflective, auto-referential, and auto-representational) in the sense of reflecting on the (autobiographical) self, but also in the sense of reflecting on the art of text-making or, in this specific case, self-making.
What is the difference between autofiction and memoir?
What happens at the end of the Topeka school?
Who is Klaus in the Topeka school?
Who is Jonathan in The Topeka School?
| FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Jonathan | Gordon | Psychologist at Topeka called the Foundation. Aka: Dr. J. |
| Mandy | Owen | The freshman who was attacked by Darren. |
| THE SPREAD (ADAM) | ||
| Adam | Gordon | Jonathan’s son. A skillful debater. |
Why is autofiction popular?
What is the point of autofiction?
How do you not sound like a narcissist?
Listen. If you find that you talk more than you listen, you’re displaying narcissistic personality traits. To stop being a narcissist you need to actively listen to those around you. This means asking questions and making sure that the conversation doesn’t always somehow end up back on you.
Who is Darren in the Topeka school?
What are things a narcissist would say?
In the first few weeks narcissists will say things like:
“I’ve never met anyone like you before.” “You understand me so much better than anyone else.” “It’s fate that we met.” “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
How do you shut down a narcissist?
The following are 16 key phrases to disarm a narcissist:
- 1. “
- “I Can’t Control How You Feel About Me”
- “I Hear What You’re Saying”
- “I’m Sorry You Feel That Way”
- “Everything Is Okay”
- “We Both Have a Right to Our Own Opinions”
- “I Can Accept How You Feel”
- “I Don’t Like How You’re Speaking to Me so I Will not Engage”