Often when recalling events from memory, we are constructing them from a subjective and biased point of view. Our view of our past and the stories that make it may differ from the views of others who share these elements of history, bringing the truth of the autobiographic process into question. In the book Inside Out, E. Stuart Bates states "because the author cannot describe events objectively, even the most accurate autobiographies have fictional elements" (Bates 7-10), and even aside from objectivity, memory itself can be forgotten, modified, and even merged with fictional events from other works of art such as films or novels. However, as Lynda Barry states, "is it autobiography is parts of it are not true? Is it fiction if parts of it are?" (Barry 7), and this question applies particularly well to the collected stories within Will Eisner's Life, in Pictures. These stories move from nearly complete autobiographic representation of the author, to stories that completely veer from the known history of Mr. Eisner, but all work to create an autobiographic reproduction of how the author came to be. In this essay I will look to demonstrate how Eisner's work is completely a representation of autobiography by looking at how the process of memory itself can form identity and history, even if certain elements of the book do not pertain to the objective "truth" of history.
From the direct archival representation of reality of "The Dreamer" and "To the Heart of the Storm" to the abstracted characterization and situations of "A Sunset in Sunshine City" and "The Name of the Game", Eisner traverses all ends of what could be considered autobiography. The two stories that present history as an archive really provide a representation of wha...
... middle of paper ...
...ervade our own memories of experience. By re-experiencing the memories as the author recalled, we can see a glimpse into their character and mindset by viewing their representation of reality against what we know of experience ourselves, and I believe that is the true benefit of memoir and autobiography, to learn from others experiences, and how they interpret them in contrasting or similar ways as we do.
Works Cited
Chute, Hillary. "Comics Form and Narrating Lives." Profession 2011. By Rosemary Geisdorfer. Feal and Carol Zuses. New York: MLA, 2011. 107-17. Print.
Eisner, Will. Life, in Pictures: Autobiographical Stories. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 105-312. Print.
Bates, E. Stuart. Inside Out: An Introduction to Autobiography. New York: Sheridan House, 1937.
Barry, Lynda. One Hundred Demons. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch books, 2002. Print.
When I decide to read a memoir, I imagine sitting down to read the story of someone’s life. I in vision myself learning s...
When inquiring about the comparisons and contrasts between Melville’s Benito Cereno and Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, Written by Himself, the following question almost inevitably arises: Can a work of fiction and an autobiography be compared at all? Indeed, the structure of the two stories differs greatly. Whereas Douglass’s Narrative adapts a typical pattern of autobiographies, i.e. a chronological order of birth, childhood memories, events that helped shape the narrator etc., Benito Cereno is based on a peculiar three-layered foundation of a central story recounting the main events, a deposition delineating the events prior to the first part, and an ending.
It should be noted that gaining an identity in autobiographical writing is crucial “because literacy becomes a way of creating an identity where before there was none in the public discourse” (Finkelman, vol.2, 190). Although the identities of William and Ellen Craft may have been revealed partially before their narrative, their own words and experience have a much greater impact on the reader than if told by a secondary source.
In Schechtman’s Stories, Lives, and Basic Survival, the author argues through her narrative self-constitution view that narrative is extremely important to our lives, and that we identify with our past actions, while using our larger narrative of our lives to make decisions for the future as a survival technique. She then goes on to explain that we have “empathetic access” to our past decisions, and that we must look at our lives as one large narrative, and learn from living our lives in the past, to survive on as the best possible person in the future. I disagree with her viewpoints because they do not allow the possibility for someone to radically change and they force people to identify with their actions they would not like to be remembered for in the past. In this paper, I will explain Schectman’s “narrative self- constitution” view on narrativity, but disagree with her views that one must identify with their past actions. I will align my view more towards Goldie’s “narrative sense of self” because that people don’t have to identify with their past actions, and that while incredibly difficult, there is a chance for people to forgive themselves for a bad occurrence in the past and radically change for the better.
...d recommend[s] books based on [her] connection with the written word and its message” (Baillie). She claims that the publishers should be the ones to define a memoir as a memoir and she will accept the book as the category given to her, and that if it is a memoir, she understands that the dates and facts may be blurred and compressed; however, an argument forms that a memoir should not be composed of blurred and compressed facts, but the simple truth. The most important aspect of Defonseca’s book is the truth; however, when the validity is taken from a memoir, the meaning of it follows. Her book’s themes, messages, and morals derive from the fact that it is a true experience; however, when the truth of the memoir was taken away, the meaning of the memoir was too. Her inspirational story is no longer inspirational when it becomes fictional, causing it to lose value.
Written stories differ in numerous ways, but most of them have one thing in common; they all have a narrator that, on either rare occasions or more regularly, help to tell the story. Sometimes, the narrator is a vital part of the story since without him or her, it would not be possible to tell the story in the same way, and sometimes, the narrator has a very small role in the story. However, he or she is always there, and to compare how different authors use, and do not use, this outside perspective writing tool, a comparison between Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, Henry James’ Daisy Miller, and David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly will be done.
Skillfully mixing criticism and biography, Klinkowitz demonstrates how Barthelmeís life influenced his work; how his time in the army as a service newspaper writer, and later as a publicity writer and editor prepared him to handle ìwords and images as blocks of material rather than as purveyors of conceptions ...î[3]But the use of autobiographical material makes a point beyond that relevant to critical biography.Klinkowitz argues that a consistent thematic in Barthelmeís writing was life as text--and therefore text as some sort of incarnation of life.As Klinkowitz writes of his meeting with Barthelme in the village, Barthelme ìwas firmly inside his text.
In the summer of 1998 my family fled the newly created independent country of Croatia (Former-Yugoslavia) to the United States. My parents came here in hopes of finding a better life as the economy was still recovering from Croatia’s war of independence. We first settled in Amarillo, Texas for a few months. We traveled around the states for a year or so looking for other refugees. After some searching my parents decided to move to Connecticut as it offered the best incentives for refugees. Listening to stories about this time of my life has given me a chance to appreciate the help we received from various government programs that settled us, clothed us, fed us, and helped us become independent American citizens. Now I want to give back and the best way I know to do this is by teaching the future generations of Americans.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
Most people are very convinced that they have memories of past experiences because of the event itself or the bigger picture of the experience. According to Ulric Neisser, memories focus on the fact that the events outlined at one level of analysis may be components of other, larger events (Rubin 1). For instance, one will only remember receiving the letter of admission as their memory of being accepted into the University of Virginia. However, people do not realize that it is actually the small details that make up their memories. What make up the memory of being accepted into the University of Virginia are the hours spent on writing essays, the anxiety faced due to fear of not making into the university and the happiness upon hearing your admission into the school; these small details are very important in creating memories of this experience. If people’s minds are preset on merely thinking that memories are the general idea of their experiences, memories become very superficial and people will miss out on what matters most in life. Therefore, in “The Amityville Horror”, Jay Anson deliberately includes small details that are unnecessary in the story to prove that only memory can give meaning to life.
The essence of memory is subjective (Lavenne, et al. 2005: 2). In Never Let Me Go memories are formed in the mind of ‘Kathy H’ which emanate her subjective views. These relate to her own emotions and prejudices as an outsider, a clone, experienced through the innocence of childhood, and the deception of adulthood from the institutions of ‘Hailsham’ and ‘the cottages.’ Which allude to Kazuo Ishiguro’s ow...
In making stories: Law, Literature, Life, Jerome Brunner drives one to contemplate about the characteristics of stories, but also to consider the various ways one uses them to sail across the predicament of a human beings experiences. Narratives are set to be congenital and one understands allegedly how they work. We hardly take the time to think on how our narratives or whoever’s, constrain us, and why chronicles have the power to overhaul our beliefs as well as get in the way of our intellect, or how they brunt our humanoid institutions. In addition, it’s contended that stories are the “building blocks” of human experiences and are also a very important piece to what we call “Self” along with the emblem to our interactions with society, it also distinguishes one apart from the exceedingly assertive humanoid institutions, in spite of, Law. Making Stories drifts in the argument that narrative is crucial for our soundness, reason and education in explaining and understanding human experiences.
The interdependence of memory and identity is not unproblematic. Self-assessment and assessment of the characters in the novel will lead one to realise that manipulation of the past is integral...
In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stresses the importance of memory and how memories shape a person’s identity. Stories such as “In Search of Lost Time” by Proust and a report by the President’s Council on Bioethics called “Beyond Therapy” support the claims made in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
In studying the advent of autobiography as a genre in its own right, it would seem to be a particularly modern form of literature, a hybrid form of biography. Also, the distinctions between the forms of the biography, personal history or diary and novel are becoming questioned in that the autobiography is not an account of wisdom accumulated in a lifetime but a defining of identity. 2