Writing Barry – Writing Gender/Genre Crossing: An Introduction

Abstract

This opening chapter introduces the reader to the historical figure of James Barry and to the key concepts of the book: transgender, neo-Victorianism, life-writing/biographilia (biography, biofiction, biodrama). This chapter is divided into three sections:

• 1. (Self-)Representations: Gender, Genre and Transgression considers the self-referential ambiguity that the historical subject Barry embraced and that is reflected in biographilic approaches in order to argue, as the key premise of the book, that the gender instability of James Barry serves as an exemplary illustration of the genre instability of biographilia.

• 2. Meta/Textual Impersonations: Neo-Victorian Biographilia provides a conceptualization of current life-writing theories that will form the framework of the study.

• 3. The final section, on ‘Passing Reflections and Structures’, provides a chapter overview.