Article: The Thick-Skinned Art of John Updike: 'From the Journal of a Leper'.(significance of skin in author's short stories)

Abstract

This essay examines the significance of skin in Updike's work, beginning with his representation of psoriasis in his short story,'From the Journal of a Leper'. The conception of skin as an aesthetic or writing surface is considered, as well as the interfaces between autobiography and fiction, self and other, and finally men and women in Updike's writing.

The most revealing moment in Updike's autobiography Self-Consciousness comes when he quotes from his short story, 'From the Journal of a Leper', as he frequently does cite his fiction in this strange characteristic of his autobiography. The citation concerns the psychic effects of psoriasis, ...

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