Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Reid, Amy

Keywords

Nin, Anaïs, Literature, Erotics, Social Media

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis explores the unique position of the literary persona of Anaïs Nin, a persona produced in her writing through the tension between autobiography and fiction. If Nin is best known for her erotic fiction, her reputation reflects the careful construction of her autobiographical voice in her diaries. My first chapter argues that the editing decisions made in the publication of Nin’s Childhood Diaries, some 40 years after their writing, shape the “Anaïs” of its pages toward the project and persona that brought her (and her editors) critical and financial success. My second chapter examines Nin’s erotic fiction in light of her self-described “literary prostitution” and the calculations that determined the publication of her erotica. My third chapter discusses the lack of intimacy in Nin’s final diaries and asserts that the distillation of her voice reflects an acknowledgement of her audience at the moment when she confronts both death and the completion of her lifelong diary habit. Further, I seek to resolve the disconnect between the writing and publishing of her works by contrasting them with the contemporary practice of blogging. Today, nearly 40 years after her death, new material from Nin’s diaries continues to be published. Still, I question whether her diaries, so heavily edited by her and others, can ever reveal the true Anaïs Nin.

Download

Share

COinS