"My Own Portrait in Writing": Self-Fashioning in the Letters of Vincent van Gogh

by Patrick Grant

In Grant's earlier book, The Letters of Vincent van A Critical Study , he followed a practical-critical analysis of the letters that dealt with key patterns of metaphors and concepts. This volume is a complement to the first book and provides an effective, theory-based reading of the letters that brings them more fully and successfully into the domain of modern literary studies. Each chapter addresses some significant aspect of Van Gogh's writing including a "reading" of the letter-sketches and their narrative dimensions, a deconstruction of the binaries used in Van Gogh's writing and painting, observations of Van Gogh's own understanding of the permeable boundary between words and visual art, and a discussion of the set of polarities apparent in Van Gogh's discussions of imagination, fantasy, belief, and self-surrender. Consequently, as a whole and in each of its parts, this book offers a new, timely, and theoretically-informed interpretation of Van Gogh's literary achievement.

220 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2015

About the author

Patrick Grant is the Creative Director of Savile Row tailors Norton & Sons and E. Tautz. Recipient of the British Fashion Council's Menswear Designer of the Year Award in 2010, he is renowned for his passion for clothing, craftsmanship and classic British brands.