Chris Kraus about Mary McCarthy
The American writer Mary McCarthy is best known for her novel The Group, first published in 1959. Depicting the lives of eight friends graduated from the same elite female college in 1933, through their experiences of love, marriage and art, the novel’s groundbreaking treatment of gender and sexual liberation received a great deal of attention upon publication. McCarthy drew on her own life for inspiration and had to put up with harsh criticism by those claiming to be the basis for the various characters.
In the House of Literature’s series “literary guiding stars”, authors are asked to talk about a writer they greatly admire. Chris Kraus has previously visited The House of Literature to talk about I Love Dick, a semi-autobiographic novel first published in 1997, which still attracts new readers after more than twenty years.
Like McCarthy, Kraus’s mix of autobiography and fiction divided critics initially, before becoming a feminist classic. But what other parallels are found between these two writers? How does Kraus read McCarthy today, and in what ways is she still considered innovative?
The event will be in English.
Litteraturhuset Wergeland English https://litteraturhuset.ticketco.events/no/nb/e/i_love_mary_mccarthy_ledestjerneforedrag_ved_chris_kraus