Ballads of a Thin Man

Abstract

This thesis pairs critical literary research, an essay titled "'Improvisations on a Self': Companion Essay and Introduction to Ballads of a Thin Man," with a novella manuscript, Ballads of a Thin Man, to investigate its main inquiries: where do, these–as Philp Roth conceptualizes them–”improvisations on a self" (Deception 98) originate, and how might they more effectively reach "truth" in comparison to other modes of writing? Through an investigation of the self (creative) and autobiographical fiction (critical), authenticity, voice, music, loss, and journey are assessed to quantify the exchanges between the writer and the self, the facts and the imagination, and life and writing.