The Island and the Metaphor Autobiographer: Arthur Koestler on the River

Abstract

Arthur Koestler's autobiographical history is one that suffered from his own invention, intervention and revision over a period of some 47 years. During these years Koestler sought to correct, edit and even destroy earlier autobiographical works towards a final 'true' version of his self, albeit one almost wholly described in metaphor. The metaphors that comprise the core of Koestler's autobiographical project are a series of interrelated metaphors, metaphors that have been described as "oceanic" by Koesder himself, and that others have observed are self erasing.