Authorship and the Historical Moment

Each life narrative is set within a historical context. It is necessary to recognize what was historically relevant during the time a specific narrative takes place because life stories do not exist in a vacuum in which society, culture, and time are not present. Each of these factors effect the story that takes place within them. 

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass represents this idea. When Douglass wrote his narrative in the mid-nineteenth century, the United States was experiencing a massive divide over the issue of slavery. It was North v. South, the union v. the confederacy, and abolitionists v. slave holders. In the midst of this division, their was a lack of strong representation to convey the struggles of the black population. The answer to this issue was Frederick Douglass. He was a former slave who had experienced the injustices of slavery and physical abuse as shown in the scenes with Mr. Covey as well as the hospitality, and then eventual unkindness of the more humane slave holders such as the Hughs. By the time he was free, he had taught himself to read and write where Mrs. Hughs had left off. The account of his life served a greater purpose than to regale readers with a narrative of one's accomplishments; it expressed the truth about freedom as well as illuminated the historical moments in which it was written. 

Personal Take:

I kept a very in-depth journal from the ages of fourteen to seventeen that covered the beginning of freshman year of high school to the summer before I went to college. Every once in a while, I return to its pages and check up on my former self. When I read the entries, sometimes I make fun of myself for how I conveyed my life and sometimes I pat myself on the back for having the type of insight I had about my experiences at the time. When I read the entries and look at the dates, I get a chance to see exactly how I felt at a certain point in my life about specific things that I did or that happened to me. It covers everything from puberty, to my sister's cancer and how it affected me and my family, to the funerals of friends' parents and my own maternal grandmother's, as well as the confusion surrounding SATs and going to college. There is darkness throughout, as well as light, bright, revelations. When I recognize the historical context of the entries, I get a chance to make sense of them, and in a way, make sense of myself and who I was during an incredibly transformative part of my life. 

-Mary Alice Miller

Authority and Authenticity

These concepts are closely related to the concept of "Audience," in that it is the audience who perceives a writer's authority and authenticity. While reading an autobiographical text, it is important for the audience to feel that the narrator is reliable in the sense that s/he has the authority to write about whatever topics s/he is addressing, as well as the ability to be both an active and observing participant in his or her life/narrative.  

Cabeza de Vaca's narrative in relation to authenticity was a hot topic in class.

The general consensus was that Cabeza de Vaca was an unreliable narrator due to his extreme awareness of his primary audience, the Spanish King, who right from the get go, de Vaca refers to as his "Holy, Imperial, Catholic Majesty" (45). What seemed unbelievable to us as readers was that Cabeza de Vaca seemed more effected by the presence of the King's authority than the intensity of his experiences while in the New World. On page 47, he insists that though some of his experiences seem unbelievable, he should be trusted because he acted in the name of service to the King. This statement alone is enough to question his authenticity because at the level of cultural immersion he experienced, there must have been a point where his values adjusted due to concern for himself and curiosity of others. To draw from Smith and Watson’s concepts of the Narrating "I" v. the Narrated "I" in relation to Cabeza de Vaca, it seemed at times that the Narrating "I" was too controlling and    subsequently, didn't leave room for the Narrated "I" to convey historical and factual truth.

Personal Take:

As a student, it is important to feel as if my professors have the authority to be teaching as well as the authenticity that comes with teaching a subject correctly and passionately. By having a sense of authority (that comes with the proper degrees and experiences) and authenticity (that manifests itself in the form of teachers who are both academically and personally invested in their students' successes), great professors are expected to teach truthfully as well as inspire their students with their interpretation of the curriculum. I, like all college students, have been a student since the age of five, and thus, feel pretty knowledgeable on the subject of what makes an effective teacher. This is specifically important to me because my ultimate career goal is to be a creative writing professor. Therefore, when I am in my classes, I am not just a student, I am an observer. With each professor I have, I actively try to identify what is successful about their methods and what I will never, ever do once I am an educator. (Don't worry Vander Zee, you've provided lots of helpful, positive tips for me and my future career.)

-Mary Alice Miller

Audience and Addressee

Part of being self-aware is being conscious of who you are addressing when you represent yourself and your ideas. Thus, when we read autobiographies it is important to question who the writer was intending to speak to when they wrote their narrative. If the piece was intended to be published for the masses, we can agree that one of the audiences is us, the nameless, faceless reader. However, upon further inspection, we can find if the work is addressed to someone specific. If the book is dedicated to someone, or if the text is obviously directed towards someone, then we can infer that the author's writing is influenced by the idea that a specific audience will be reading it.

"And most of all beware, even in thought, of assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of grief is not a proscenium, a man who wails is not a dancing bear... - Aime Cesaire"

This epigraph in Don't Let Me Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine shows this kind of self-awareness. Rankine realizes that she is allowing a collection of people, most of which are people she does not know, to witness an intimate recollection of her personal life and of one of her most personal feelings, loneliness. The epigraph is directed to the readers technically as a warning, but in actuality it is more a request of empathy over judgment, or at least of an attempt to understand the content that the reader is about to delve into. 

Personal Take:

I had a very intense connection to Rankine's novel. I tend to get trapped inside of feelings, especially those involving empathy. After passing out directly after talking to a professor about being overwhelmingly elated with the then current state of my life, my circle of friends voted me most likely to die from intoxicating happiness. Paradoxically, I have spent hours crying to my mother over the phone about physical abuse in a new friend's relationship, genocide in Libya, and other varied forms of injustice. It took a long time for me to accept these intense emotions and it's a perpetual battle trying to control them and harness their intensity to produce a positive outcome for myself and for those who I care about. I've never felt totally comfortable showing these intense emotions because I never wanted to be someone's "dancing bear."  My overwhelming sense of empathy caused me to feel the loneliness conveyed by Rankine while I was reading her book and the epigraph was so incredibly fitting for this type of narrative. It is a mantra to remember whether you have been the spectator or the spectacle. 

- Mary Alice Miller

Narrative Plotting and Modes

This section of the Tool Kit is used to describe how the cultural scripts or the historical moment can influence how a narrator presents him or herself. Patterns of emplotment emerge in autobiographies that are often demarcated by the shared customs or beliefs of the epoch. Smith and Watson point out that autobiographies often exhibit different patterns in structuring self-narrative. One mode of emplotment might dominate another because certain patterns can emerge in self-life writing that are contradictory in nature, and thus one pattern tends to stand out amongst the rest. The noticeable changes in patterns of emplotment in self narratives can delineate a shift in the narrator’s perception of himself or a break from the main ideology that dominates the text.  

Smith and Watson urge the reader to “Consider carefully the relationship between narrative plotting and modes of idenity” (RA 246). The autobiographies of the Puritans are certainly dominated by a purely religious script, which basically boils down to a collective identity as a community of God’s chosen people. The Puritan confession, conversion, and jeremiad are the three dominate patterns of emplotment in the writings from the era. Thomas Shepard’s confessions from his congregation demonstrate how Puritan belief in their innate total depravity as sinners. These texts serve as their confessions to god, whom is always revered as the ultimate power and saving grace; the majority of Puritan texts follow this pattern of praising god while condemning individuals as sinful. Shepard implores his son to “give thy eyes, nay, thy heart and whole soul and body, to him that hath been so careful of thee when thou couldst not care for thyself” (Shepard 39). One Puritan woman, Jane Willows, demonstrate the Puritans never ending strife to shed their wicked ways in return for god’s grace when she wrote “I considered what a woeful frame I had, distrusting God’s providence, and so was in a confusion in my spirit…Lord came to me and showed me need of Lord’s strength and support…yet I lost it again. Yet heard Lord would give strength to them that have no strength” (The Confessions 201). The confessional self-examination is one of the most prevalent patterns of emplotment in Puritan autobiographies.

Personal Take:

Have you ever found yourself saying the same old spill when you meet new people. I am referring to small talk and the patterns I find in my dialogue with people who I have just met, and I normally engage in this idle chatter without noticing it. It’s the mundane questions and scripted answers that have caused me to take a new tack when meeting people for the first time. You know what I am talking about. For example, you meet someone in a bar, and during the gaps of the normally deafening music they spark up a conversation by asking the same dead end questions time and time again. Sometimes I feel like I am an unwilling participant in a survey poll:

-          What’s your name…Bob.

-          What are you doing tonight...who knows, what are you doing?

-          How do you know so and so…we go back.

-          Are you from around here…I live here now, yea over that way.

-          Do you go to school…yep

-          What’s your major…communication

-          What do you want to do with that…engage in meaning-full conversation.

Now-a-days, depending on how much I have to drink, I feed people the most ridiculous non-sense that comes to my mind. I don’t really consider it lying, because giving people generic responses means I am lying to myself because these on-call answers don’t speak for my true identity. I bask in seeing the looks on people’s faces when I respond to the questions above with something along the lines of

What’s your name?

            -My name is Robert Paulson!

What are you doing tonight?

            -Trying to stay clear of Dog the Bounty Hunter, he’s a gunnin’ for me.

How do you know so and so?

            -Oh, that guy…me and him used to get drunk together and beat up midgets.

Are you from around here?    

            -I come from the land of Mordor.

Do you go to school?                         

            -No, I’m not technically supposed to be within 300 feet of a school.                                                        

 What’s your major?                            

           -I  majored in living like Charlie Sheen, oh and I minored in blowing shit up.

What…?     

I’m sorry what were you talking about, oh yea that’s right—Nothing—what’s up with all these questions anyways - are you a cop? I’ll tell you what, when you have an original thought let me know so I can blow that shit up like…POW!!! (imagine an obscene hand gesture or something). *This is meant to be absurd.

I realize that if you met someone like this you would be like “this guy is a complete A-hole,” but I feel that even random non-sense is better than engaging in conversation for the sake of conversation. Yes, the questions above are all solid ways to get to know someone, but please people take heed of Emerson’s “Experience” when he calls for spontaneous action. I am just sick of filling out an oral questionnaire when meeting people. Patterns of emplotment like ritualized conversation starters are exactly what I would leave out of my autobiography. If I were to write about someone I met in my memoirs, I might have one sentence dedicated to name, origin, occupation, and background. However, I might write several pages about this person if we spent the night doing extraordinary stuff or talked about truly remarkable and interesting things. However, I guess you have to start somewhere. Next time you find yourself in a similar situation take notice of when people use patterns of emplotment to establish his or her identity. Say things that deviate from the beaten path, and if you do ask questions, ask one’s that call for a real response. 

-Joe Fleming

Voice

Collective Voice:

Voice refers to a number of different aspects of autobiographical texts by delineating the number of different voices in a work. Multiple voices emerge as part of a larger collective voice based on shared ethnic, religious, cultural, or social customs. A collective voice can be heard clearly in dialectic language that employs pronouns such as us, them, we, they, etc. When these words are firmly embedded in autobiographical texts they signal polarized relationality and a sense of the Other. In Cabeza De Vaca’s self-narrative he always refers to the Native Americans as them, while stereotyping their collective identity as barbaric heathens with no souls. This voice stands in stark contrast to the benevolent language De Vaca employs to talk about his fellow brave and virtuous Christian conquistadors that were eventually relegated to complete dependency on the Amerindians’ support in order to survive through the winters in which the noble Europeans turned to cannibalism. However, peculiar passages stand out that demonstrate a radical departure form the dominant voice in break out moments like Cabeza De Vaca’s self-narrative in which he replaces his harsh voice that dismisses the natives as barbarians and completely alien with a sense of wonderment and admiration by writing “These people love their children more and treat them better than any other people the world” (Cabeza 91).

Multi or Poly-vocal Voices:

A change in voice is similar to the change in the tone of a poem; the speaker of a poem might be calm and complacent, and then suddenly becomes soaked in emotions of anger and confusion. Voice in Jonathan Edward’s Personal Narrative take the reader on a emotional roller coaster by being completely filled with the holy spirit that “has appeared as an infinite fountain of divine glory and sweetness” to writing “when I look into my heart, and take a view of my wickedness it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell” (Edwards 395). The radical transitions in Edward’s narrative demonstrate how authors can take on multiple voices within a text. Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Prologue” evokes gender tension and conflicting voices not typically used in her other works by juxtaposing her social identity as a wholesome puritan mother along side her sharp desire to be acknowledged as a capable and talented female writer.

I am obnoxious to each carping tongue

Who says my hand a needle better firs,

       A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,

    For such despite they cast on female wits:

    If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,

            They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.

Personal Take:

I have worked in the food and beverage industry since I was old enough to work. Anyone that has worked in a restaurant will tell you that there is a considerable difference in the ‘server’ voice that waiters use at their tables while talking to customers and the voice they use the rest of the time. The tone, mannerisms, and language used are not authentic representations of voice because they have been shaped for, and directed towards a specific audience. Smith and Watson stress the importance of keeping the author’s voice in context by acknowledging the intended audience, perceiving self-constructed agency, and noticing the shifts in the mood or tone of voice in autobiographies. 

-Joe Fleming

The Autobiographical "I"

The Autobiographical "I" consists of four parts that together account for the way a writer conveys his or her life narrative. The Narrating "I" is the part of the Autobiographical "I" that essentially recalls memories in order to tell the story. The Narrated "I" can be thought of the character that the life narrative is about. The Ideological "I" is the part that is influenced by various cultural scripts and is not always evident to the author. The Historical "I" is the part that is concerned with the historical context of the narrative. 

While Philip Lopate's essay "Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character," doesn't directly discuss the various parts of the autobiographical "I," it focuses on what the letter and word "I" conveys in stories within the introductory paragraph. While he may not be alluding to Smith and Watson's text, he does talk about how the use of the word "I" alludes to a "lush, sticky past," but doesn't necessarily fulfill the requirement of information that the reader craves. Thus, as he explains, there is the necessity to build upon that "I" by turning oneself into a character by backing up that "I" with the aforementioned four part puzzle that together creates the Autobiographical "I."

Personal Take:

I am a Creative Writing Concentrator within my English Major. Reading the section about the Autobiographical "I" in the Tool Kit made me think about my own work differently. I especially thought of the difference between the Narrating "I" and the Narrated "I" in terms of my own authenticity. Many of my pieces of creative non-fiction are written about my family and often require me to dig up old family memories in order to tell a story. However, I've realized via the concept of the "I" that the farther in time I am from a memory, the less likely my retelling of it is entirely truthful; it is most definitely biased based upon my personal experience of it. So, what's required now in order to reach a truer autobiographical truth, is evidence-- anything to link me to my Narrated "I." Now when I write stories about the past, I turn to my old journal to see just how I felt during the specific events which I retell. 

- Mary Alice Miller

Additionally, I'd like to showcase the work of a fellow student. John Vasoli's hilarious take on the Autobiographical "I:" here. 

Identity

Smith and Watson suggest that one constructs his/her Identity by re-interpreting their experiences and memories and then writing about them with a certain degree of new insight or altered perception. In the Tool-Kit they also articulate that people choose to leave some experiences out while writing about others to illuminate some aspect of their lives they felt was significant. This freedom to choose what one includes demonstrates agency in their text as individuals carefully construct their identity through a conscious creation of an identity molded by the experiences and memories they incorporate in writing about their respective lives. Smith and Watson also talk about a ‘collective identity’ in which individuals identify themselves as part of a larger collective whole through religious, cultural, social, ethnic, or other forms of commonality. The autobiographical texts of the Puritans function as a great example of a collective identity as most identify themselves as a community of god’s chosen people. However, Smith and Watson provide a more complex mode of identity that shows the fluidity of the “multiplicity of identities [that] are not additive but intersectional” (RA 41). One’s identity is almost always complicated by conflicting voices, resistance to the collective, or overlapping and contradictory tropes of self-representation.

Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a great example of intersectional identities because his self-representation contains numerous complex nuances that show the intricate reality of one’s supposed ‘identity’. Rather than identifying with a collective cultural or ethnic group, Whitman identified himself as a member of the human race as a whole when he wrote “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman 27). However, he then goes on to complicate this notion by writing “I am not an earth nor an adjunct of earth (33)…clear and sweet is my soul…and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul” (29). He identifies himself as something (or someone) that does not exist alone, nor is he a part of something else when he wrote “nor an adjunct of earth” (27). The conflict in his quest for finding the ‘song of one’s self’ is expressed in the line “I am mad to be in contact with me” (27). Whitman’s “Song of Myself” demonstrates Smith and Watson’s intersectional identity, and the fact that defining one’s identity is a slippery slope that often leads to generalization that do not capture the essence of the individual.

Personal Take:

It’s a funny thing—identity—mankind has built fences, persecuted each other, and waged wars over perceptions of identity. It is my opinion that it is impossible to identify yourself…period. Yes you can claim you’re a Christian, but are you not also a human being that is a member of particular nation or ethnic group with different beliefs and customs than other Christians. No one can capture one’s own identity, they can only throw out endless amounts of their personal experiences, thoughts, memories, and ideologies; the final result is that someone else can combine all of this, and come up with their own interpretation of that person. As a kid growing up I used to identify myself as a skateboarder. In my middle school there were the skaters and the jocks, as well as a dozen other groups that we had labels for, but this is how my friends and I identified people. We would ask ‘do you skate?...oh…no. then that must make you a jock or something.” I just think its funny how much time and effort is wasted in trying to identify yourself or others. We should just take people for what and who they are in the moment rather than trying to slap a label on them, or even worse, engage in psychological profiling way of viewing other people.

-Joe Fleming