Choosing Between Fictions of Clara Schumann: Interview with Janice Galloway

Abstract

In this interview, conducted in 2015, Scottish author Janice Galloway reflects on her motivation for writing her award-winning biographical novel Clara (Jonathan Cape, London, 2002) and explains why she chose to write a meticulously researched work of fiction rather than a “biography.” She sheds light on her formal experiments, on the impact of her own national consciousness on her writing practice, on her distrust of language in general and authoritative biography in particular, and on the challenges of conveying in print a life suffused by music.