Reading, Writing, Living, and Feeling:

an Interview With Olivia Dresher on the Literary Fragment

Authors

  • Geraldo Magela Cáffaro UNIMONTES
  • Leonardo Correa Neves Unimontes
  • Henrique de Oliveira Lee UFMT

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2358-3428.2022v26n56p102-112

Keywords:

Fragmento literário, Olívia Dresher, Entrevista, Modernidade

Abstract

This article presents a discussion of the literary fragment and introduces the work of Olivia Dresher, an American anthologist, musician, and diarist, who has adopted Twitter as support for her intimate writings as of 2009. This preamble works as background to the exclusive interview with the writer reproduced here, through which we learn about Dresher’s formative years, her thoughts about the fragment, and the implications of writing on social media. The article highlights the relationship between fragmentary writing and modernity, and addresses the challenges underlying the analysis of fragments, which includes the very flexibility of these texts (which may take on a variety of forms), as well as the question of autobiography, as these productions are often of a personal, intimate nature. Olivia Dresher’s writings and anthologies – A silence of words (2019), In pieces: an anthology of fragmentary writing (2006), and Darkness and light: private writing as art (2000) – as well as works by theorists and critics such as Gerald L. Bruns, Philip Beitchman, and Leonor Arfuch have provided support for this study and for the presentation of Olivia’s thoughts in the interview.

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Author Biography

Geraldo Magela Cáffaro, UNIMONTES

Univesidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes). Doutor em Literaturas em inglês. Professor efetivo de Literaturas em Inglês e membro do Programa de Mestrado em Estudos Literários da Unimontes.

References

ARFUCH, Leonor. O espaço biográfico: dilemas da subjetividade contemporânea. Trad. Paloma Vidal. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. UERJ, 2010.

BEITCHMAN, Philip. The fragmentary word. Substance, 1983, v. 12, n. 2, ed. 39 (1983), p. 58-74.

BRUNS, Gerald L. Interruptions: the fragmentary aesthetic in modern literature. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2018.

BURKE, Sean. The death and return of the author. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.

CANCLINI, Nestor Garcia. Quem fala e em qual lugar: sujeitos simulados e pós-construtivismo. In Diferentes, desiguais e desconectados: mapas da interculturalidade. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ, 2005. p.183-208.

DRESHER, Olivia. Fragnotes. Fraglit Magazinge, n. 4, Spring 2009. Available at: http://fraglit.com/flit/archives/category/s-2009. Acesso em 20 de fevereiro de 2022.

DRESHER, Olivia. Introduction. In: DRESHER, Olivia, ed. In pieces: an anthology of fragmentary writing. Seattle, WA: Impassio Press, 2006. p. xi-2.

DRESHER, Olivia. Moments & reflections. In: DRESHER, Olivia, ed. In pieces: an anthology of fragmentary writing. Seattle, WA: Impassio Press, 2006. p. 189-211.

DRESHER, Olivia. Oliviadresher.com. Availabble at: http://fraglit.com/od/bio. 04 de janeiro de 2022.

DRESHER, Olivia. A silence of words. Seattle, WA: Impassion Press, 2019.

DRESHER, Olivia, ed. In pieces: an anthology of fragmentary writing. Seattle, WA: Impassio Press, 2006.

DRESHER, Olivia; MUÑOZ, Victor, eds. Darkness and light: private writing as art. An anthology of contemporary journals, diaries, and notebooks. San Jose; Nova York; Lincoln; Shanghai: toExcel Press, 2000.

FAEDRICH, Ana. O conceito de autoficção: demarcações a partir da literatura brasileira contemporânea. Itinerários, Araraquara, n. 40, jan./jul., 2015. p. 45-60.

GREENWOOD, Kimble James. Meditation on 25 years of journal writing. In: DRESHER, Olivia; MUÑOZ, Victor, eds. Darkness and light: private writing as art. An anthology of contemporary journals, diaries, and notebooks. San Jose; Nova York; Lincoln; Shanghai: toExcel Press, 2000. p. 307-31.

MUÑOZ, Victor. The journal as Art: ‘Impossible text’. In: DRESHER, Olivia; MUÑOZ, Victor, eds. Darkness and light: private writing as art. An anthology of contemporary journals, diaries, and notebooks. San Jose; Nova York; Lincoln; Shanghai: toExcel Press, 2000. p. 331-47.

SCHEEL, Márcio. Poética do Romantismo: Novalis e o fragmento literário. São Paulo: Ed. UNESP, 2010.

Published

2022-11-18

How to Cite

CÁFFARO, Geraldo Magela; NEVES, Leonardo Correa; LEE, Henrique de Oliveira. Reading, Writing, Living, and Feeling:: an Interview With Olivia Dresher on the Literary Fragment. Scripta, Belo Horizonte, v. 26, n. 56, p. 102–112, 2022. DOI: 10.5752/P.2358-3428.2022v26n56p102-112. Disponível em: https://periodicos.pucminas.br/scripta/article/view/28241. Acesso em: 21 oct. 2025.

Issue

Section

Dossiê temático: Leituras, releituras e desleituras