Universität zu Köln
Philosophische Fakultät
Englisches Seminar

Autobiography in the Works of Bret Easton Ellis

Christian Hensgens

Table of Contents

I. Introduction ... 1

II. Life and Works of Bret Easton Ellis ... 4

III. The Autobiography – Overview and Convergence ... 9

1. Range and Dimension of Autobiography ... 10
1.1. Definition, History, and Development of Autobiography ... 10
1.2. Between Fact and Fiction: Solving the Problem of ‘Truth’ in Autobiographies ... 19
1.3. Autobiography and the Question of Genre ... 22
1.4. Distinction of Different (Auto)biographical Styles of Narration ... 24
a) Memoirs ... 24
b) Diary ... 25
c) Autofiction ... 27
d) Semi-Autobiography / “Wunschautobiographie” ... 28
e) Autobiographical Novel ... 28
f) Biography ... 29
1.5. Intermediate Result: The Essence of Autobiography ... 30
2. The Form of Autobiography and How It Is Reflected in the Works of Bret Easton Ellis ... 32
2.1. About the (Auto)biographical Influence on Ellis’s Works between 1985 and 2000 ... 33
2.2. The Aspect of Authenticity and Verifiability ... 37
2.3. The Selection of Facts and the Form of Depiction ... 43
2.4. Orientation towards the Reader and the Reader’s Expectation ... 49
2.5. The Aspect of Autobiographical Intention and Authorship ... 53
a) Narrative Situation ... 53
b) Intention of the Author ... 54
2.6. Metanarrative Aspects ... 60
2.7. Attempting a Categorization of Bret Easton Ellis’s Works ... 63

IV. Conclusion ... 66

Works Cited ... i–vii

I. Introduction

Autobiographies are able to record growing popularity; their dominating position on the book market cannot only be concluded from growing sales figures, but it is also the scope of scientific occupation with the subject and a continuously expanding dimension of theoretical approaches, which prove the wellestablished position of the phenomenon of autobiography within the field of literature.
What are the reasons for the outstanding position of autobiography? What is the appeal of reading such a sort of text for the reader and which aspects demarcate autobiographies from other sorts of texts? Are autobiographies especially read for the reason that they satisfy human curiosity about the lives of famous personalities? Is it the ostensible citation virtually ′from the mouth′ of the author him/herself, which pretend an insight into the author′s personality – a revelation only he/she is able to make? Or does the reading motivation result from an expected insight into a person, which enables orientation for the reader′s own life and resulting problems and crises?
Christian Klein′s opinion¹ might be appropriate. He regards biographical writing as a “Krisenphänomen”² and supports the view that autobiographies enable to cope with someone′s psychological conflicts and satisfying more or less conscious wishes. Furthermore, it seems intelligibly that autobiographical texts suggest a greater amount of ′truth′, authentically pretending to disclose life as it has been lived.
A fundamental problem of autobiographical texts arises from the inherent dichotomy of fact and fiction, which complicates – unless it does not even render out – an explicit demarcation from neighbouring genres³. Thus, autobiography is on the interface of historiography, the study of literature, and literature itself⁴.
Respective scientific theories have extensively attempted to isolate and define the field of autobiographical texts. Yet, a consistent opinion does not exist⁵. Thus, solely the sum of manifold aspects based on the multitude of theories, can reasonably determine the autobiographical character of a work. Especially, postmodern writers have recently enforced advancements of existing theoretical models by trifling with the traditional understanding of different genres and their constitutive conditions. Thereby, these authors actively include their readers into the process of reading and force them not only to reflect on the narrated content, but also on their own reading and reception behaviour.
In this respect, it is the US-American author Bret Easton Ellis who is to set apart, since in his latest work Lunar Park, he carries the aforementioned dichotomy of fact and fiction, as well as the questioning of constitutive conditions of autobiography, to the extreme. According to the publishing house⁶, the text has to be read as novel, not as autobiography. Still, it imposes itself to take the possibility of reading the text as an autobiography into account, since several essential characteristics of the protagonist correspond to those of the author: especially lucid is the identity of the names and a metatextual consideration of word-by-word citations from earlier works by the author.
Lunar Park opens with a statement on public reactions as uttered in the context of earlier – real-existing – works. Hereby, the narrator′s claim, that Less Than Zero had been mistaken for autobiography⁷, has to be accentuated.
Thus, an analysis of Lunar Park demands likewise a consideration of earlier works by Bret Easton Ellis, the more so as Ellis′s latest work metatextually refers back to these. This paper aims at such an analysis, solidifying respective characteristics and collecting them in the form of a catalogue of traditional autobiographical criteria. Furthermore, this work tries to present a distinct overview of autobiography as a genre. This requires a disassociation from neighbouring genres or (auto)biographical forms of narration, such as memoirs, diaries, autofiction, semiautobiographies, autobiographical novels, and biographies. Along with an overview of the life and works of the author Bret Easton Ellis, this first theoretical part forms the basis of the literary analysis.
This will be used within the subsequent part for a critical examination of Lunar Park – including aspects from Ellis′s earlier works – under autobiographical viewpoints. It will be argued that Lunar Park represents Ellis′s attempt to reconsider and revise his reputation and his picture in public, which is done by seizing the public opinion and exaggerating referring events. Furthermore, it will be claimed that Ellis criticizes the audience′s reading behaviour by holding up a mirror to the reader and illustrating the reader′s misbehaviour by means of practical reading experience, rather than by an explicit justification.
Actual and extratextual sources, as well as interviews with the author, will be included in the analysis. The attempt of a categorization of Lunar Park and earlier of Bret Easton Ellis′s works, will round off the analysis.

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1 Cf. Klein, Christian, ed. Grundlagen der Biographik – Theorie und Praxis des biografischen Schreibens. Stuttgart: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 2002: 92–93.
2 See ibid.: 3
3 Cf. Finck, Almut. Autobiographisches Schreiben nach dem Ende der Autobiographie. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1999: 12, Koopmann, Helmut. "Die Biographie". In: Weissenberger, Klaus, ed. Prosakunst ohne Erzählen: Die Gattungen der nichtfiktionalen Kunstprosa. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1985: 45–66: 47/55, and Heusden, Barend van. "Alberts autobiografisch: identiteit en overeenkomst". In: Jongeneel, Els. Over de Autobiografie. Utrecht: HES Uitgevers B.V.,1989: 82–96: 82.
4 Cf. Klein 2002: 12
5 Cf. Koopmann 1985: 47
6 Cf. Ellis, Bret Easton. Lunar Park. 1. Auflage. Cologne: Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2006: front cover.
7 Cf. Ellis, Bret Easton. Lunar Park. London: Picador, 2005: 7.