Derek Jarman wrote a series of autobiographical texts, scripts and journals, in which he again and again revisited his past and continually reinvented the forms of self-writing. The sequence includes
Dancing Ledge(1984),
The Last of England(1987) (republished as
Kicking the Pricks(1996)),
Modern Nature(1991),
At Your Own Risk(1992),
Smiling in Slow Motion(2000),
Blue(1993), and
Chroma(1994).
In Modern Nature Jarman's self-writing takes a very sharp new turn. Instead of the dispersal and unsettled collage effect of his earlier efforts, Modern Nature seems very settled, steady and focussed. It is a work of relocation and reinvention. In the years just after his HIV+ diagnosis and the death of his father, after the violent hurricane of The Last of England, Jarman resettles himself
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Citation: Mepham, John. "Modern Nature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3580, accessed 25 April 2024.]
