An Evil Cradling

Brian Keenan

What is an autobiography?

The word autobiography is made up from three Greek words: autos ('self'), bios ('life') and graphein ('to write')

Autobiography is an account of a person's life written by that person

A biography is an account of a person's life written by someone else

Autobiography = Non-fiction?

Actually happened Not ’made up’ Doesn’t ask readers to suspend their disbelief: in fact demands that they don’t suspend their disbelief

Its power lies in the fact that readers CAN’T dismiss it as ‘only a story’

BUT it is one person’s version of the truth - their version may NOT be another’s version

Literary non-fiction? “Whatever you call it, it is a form of storytelling as old as the telling of stories. The genre recognises both the inherent power of the real and the deep resonance of the literary. It is a form that allows a writer both to narrate facts and to search for truth, blending the empirical eye of the reporter with the moral vision – the I – of the novelist.”

(University of Oregon)

Subject matter? Based on a truthful life experience Often recounts writer’s life from childhood to adulthood

Sometimes gives “child’s eye” view of important social, political happenings eg war, racism

Focus is not only on what happened, but the writer’s thoughts, feelings and reactions to what happened

Generic Structure? Often book length, sometimes shorter

Usually organized chronologically

Generally made up of separate episodes including stories, anecdotes, snippets of memories that are loosely connected

Characteristics? Written in first person - “I”, “me”, “my”, “mine”, “we”, “our”, “ours”

Time words help organize the narrative: some time later, on other days, one day, in the days that followed

Usually narrated in past tense Story is related in reported (indirect) speech

Use of specific detail and sensory imagery In literary non-fiction, use of literary devices such as figurative language

Characteristics? Most sentences are statements—very few questions, exclamations or commands, usually only occuring in direct speech

Direct speech can be used to show exactly what the writer said or to give other “characters” a voice

Direct speech is often casual and colloquial

Memoir v Autobiography? Memoir is like personal essay or biography: it is shaped around a theme, a problem, or a conflict

Memoir is focused in time, usually exploring a special event

Autobiography typically presents a person’s full life story (though there are some exceptions)

Autobiography can be seen as a way to understand one’s life as a totality, and to explain that life to oneself and to others

Source: education.uncc.edu

Keenan notes: “Ultimately, not everything can be told. Each man experienced his imprisonment in his own way. Each man selected and chose his own truths. This work is only a selection of moments in search of a truth that is certainly meaningful to me.” (xvi)

What does he mean? How does this affect our reading of the text?

Questions autobiographies raise

To what extent are autobiographies true stories? Can we have different truths?

What would the same story be like from a different viewpoint? Whose version of reality is the truth?

To what extent have the events been recorded accurately and faithfully and to what extent have they been “massaged” in order to create a good story or provoke a stronger reaction? How much ‘poetic licence’ has the writer taken?

Source: education.uncc.edu

Questions autobiographies raise

How does the writer’s selection of material shape the way the reader regards the subject?

When we narrate our own lives, do we misrepresent historical truth without knowing it?

Can we talk about others, and tell their secrets as well as our own?

Autobiographies presume an ending as well as a beginning: isn’t the ending –or some sort of ending –really where an autobiography begins?

Source: education.uncc.edu