Overview

In Karen Blixen's Search for Self, Patti M. Marxsen presents a twenty-first-century reconsideration of Blixen's iconic memoir Out of Africa, originally published in 1937 and now regarded as a classic of twentieth-century literature. The methodology of this ""book about a book"" draws on seasoned historical perspectives of European colonial activities in early twentieth-century Africa as it engages Blixen's letters, tales, speeches, interviews, the photographic record of her various personas, memoir literature of others who knew her, and three generations of scholarship, including pointed postcolonial critiques. Mixing scholarly research with personal reflection, Marxsen recounts an inspiring tale of a writer's evolution, along with thoughtful analysis of the art and craft of memoir. As a modern woman both trapped and liberated by privilege, Karen Christentze Dinesen Blixen experienced considerable personal and financial challenges during her years living in colonial Kenya (1914–1931), a period that Marxsen approaches as a belated coming-of-age journey rather than a romantic tale. Blixen returned to Denmark at age forty-six, bankrupt and in a state of physical and mental fragility with no idea about what she would do or how she would live in a bourgeois society that she viewed as ""incarceration."" Only when Blixen set out to reinvent herself with the ""liberating mask"" of the pseudonym Isak Dinesen did she begin to realize her potential as a storyteller and find the strength to develop her uniquely poetic narrative voice by writing about her African years. Blixen's process of loss and recovery through writing constitutes the frame of Marxsen's book, just as it constitutes the frame of Out of Africa. Marxsen traces Blixen's inner life through letters and writings to probe the origins of her imaginative power, her instinctive multiculturalism (considered ""eccentric"" in colonial Kenya), and the feminism of a creative woman in a new century. Marxsen continues the story through the contested legacies of the book, including its serving as the basis for the acclaimed, Academy Award–winning film released in 1985. This new study of Blixen's widely read memoir, which has remained consistently in print for almost ninety years, broadens understandings of the author's complex self-realization, the skill of her literary art, and the book's evolving afterlife.

Full Product Details

9780807186077

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Patti M. Marxsen takes us on a fascinating tour of the multiple aspects that have contributed to the creation and reception of Karen Blixen's memoir. From the author's original quest to record her experience of Africa, to our contemporary issues of postcolonialism, feminism, and the influence of Hollywood, Marxsen is a keen-eyed, sure-footed guide, enriching our (re)reading experience at every turn."" - Alison Anderson, author of The Summer Guest In this thorough and insightful re-evaluation of Blixen and the afterlife of Out of Africa, Marxsen introduces the author to a new generation of potential readers. Marxsen's enthusiasm for Blixen—balanced by judicious critique—makes for a highly readable as well as informative account of the Danish writer and her poignant memoir of colonial Kenya."" - Simon Lewis, author of White Women Writers and Their African Invention ""As Blixen deployed her selective memory and fervent, rebellious mind, she composed a myth of tenuous belonging that reveals as much about herself as about Africa. Those seeking a nuanced and fair reading of Out of Africa—one that confronts difficult political questions while honoring the evocative, feminist brilliance of its author—will find it in Marxsen's singular analysis."" - Janet McIntosh, author of Unsettled: Denial and Belonging Among White Kenyans ""Marxsen's excellent book on the making of Out of Africa reveals Blixen's contradictory perspectives on topics such as colonialism, feminism, and racism. In so doing, Marxsen explores how the inclusion/exclusion arrangement and emphasis inherent in memoir writing underscore the complexities of Blixen's character. In the end, the reader develops a deep admiration for Marxsen's remarkable subject."" - Norman McMillan, author of Distant Son: An Alabama Boyhood

Author Information

Patti M. Marxsen is a biographer and independent scholar whose works have been published in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. Her books include Helene Schweitzer: A Life of Her Own and Jacques Roumain: A Life of Resistance.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available