Seriously, what a topic! The author, Paul John Eakin, approaches the study of autobiography in his new book, Living Autobiographically; How we Create Identity in Narrative with the following four chapters: (1) Talking about Ourselves: the Rules of the Game (2) Autobiographical Consciousness: Body, Brain, Self, and Narrative (3) Identity Work: People Making Stories and (4) Living Autobiographically.
For now, I will select material that focuses on a general question:
Who writes what..and what can be written? Later (or soon?---sooner or later!) I will address how these questions impact the reader of Jamaica Kincaid and the writer herself. On a personal level, these questions impact me as I write an autobiographically driven blog so I think about them every day.
I'm interested in autobiographical writers and the writing of autobiography because the genre places great decision making pressure on the author beginning with the question, who should write an autobiography or memoir? Once someone, the new author or the seasoned author, begins the process of writing, a slew of questions come up. What can I say? Who will be offended by this story? What should I cut or add for narrative flow, aesthetic, and literary reasons? And the most pressing question, what should I hide for privacy reasons?
Eakin begins with the idea that we talk about ourselves everyday, that we create stories in our minds even if we don't share them with others.
Two ways of looking at identity, episodic and continuous, are pointed to as in conflict with each other. Later, it seems to decide that both are really present...though he favors continuous.
What does that mean? When a person's identity is episodic, they are able to have a fresh start new identity without reference to the past...where she came from, who her parents were, ...the starting event can occur whenever...Eaken writes about a medically disabled person, who has to decide who he is every day. He can't remember the past and so is stuck in a cycle of self story creation. (Sounds like 50 First Dates, the movie) And too, he mentions a person who (Episcopalian) who choses to be new through spirit, I suppose. A continuous identity begins from the past and changes/shifts from that reference point. Reading about this makes me think about how these two ways of framing identity are implicated in notions of re-making identity through narrative.
Jamaica Kincaid changed her name and her vision of who she was in the world by moving from her home, observing how people live, writing about her insights and providing wittily bold opinions. Nonetheless, she continued to mark the place of her birth and circumstances as the genesis of who she became. She remade herself but in a continuous manner...however, that story of beginning in Antigua was contained by the narrative...in actual life, she stopped communicating with her mother for 20 years...she didn't send back money as was expected. She had a sense that her connection would bring her down or back to who she was and that was too psychologically dangerous. She has stated in her interview (insert) that she stopped communication with her family, and in Lucy she writes about the girl who won't read her family letters and will not write back. I think that narrative, the story about our lives, is continuous but in working out a new identity sometimes the past must be contained. People do this by lying about where they came from and about what happened as they were growing up. Even in their new recreated identity, they may have to lie to maintain who they currently are and even what they do.
Interestingly, Eaken puts forth the idea that there are rules that constrain the narrative and hold it to an idea of objective truth. I think Kincaid felt that her family would not support the reinvention of herself...and the stories she told in the form of writing and speech (interviews) helped her to figure out who she was and how she came to be. They also created space from that time when she lived in Antigua to the time she became her new self in the eastern United States. This containment strategy has an element of the episodic, Old Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson/New Jamaica Kincaid, and also includes continuous identity formation because her starting point is frequently referenced. The reader never forgets where Kincaid was raised and her difficult circumstances. Who Kincaid became is based a beginning subsequent events.
Who does the policing for truth in memoir...who gives permission to invent and where is the objectively verifiable truth line drawn....how much can be created by making the memoir, filling in the dialogue when Kincaid was four in Mr. Potter: the event of seeing her biological father is repeated and detailed even though it is unlikely that she could remember it to that extent. One reviewer was critical of this detail. His unbelief in the memory for Kincaid's detail and its significance to her is part of an attempt to police. Foucault refers to those who police institutions but Eaken mentions society as the controlling force. (check) I think this example supports the notion of society policing and also shows how it can be done to an author through a book review.
Eakin, Paul John. Living Autobiographically in Narrative Identity. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press 2008.
8 comments:
Cynthia, I went to a presentation about a fake holocaust narrative and how the writing had been praised when people believed it was true. The man, who was a holocaust survivor, wrote about how he met his wife in the camp. This was the part that was not true, but as soon as it became exposed as not true, the same people who praised it began to remark on how poorly written or overwritten or superficial the work was. Some at the presentation asked the rather naive question, "How would someone react if someone wrote a book and claimed it was fiction and it was not?" Well, that is done all the time. And books do not sell worse because of that.
My aunt who just died lived a double life. She was the good daughter who did not smoke or drink, but friends of hers mentioned how when my grandmother or father came to visit, she hectically cleaned ashtrays. Luckily she had a boyfriend who smoked and whom she probably lived with for years, still remaining the good daughter and saintly sister. How did that make her feel? I think a bit of myself. My mother once asked me a question and I retorted, "Do you really want to know?", and she answered, "I don't want to know anything that would hurt me." I said simply, "Then I can tell you nothing," which did not reassure her much.
Fiction is a wonderful cover for autobiography and also a wonderful chance to be what you would not want to be or could not be.
I am glad you found the book useful.
Mark
Mark did you stop following this blog? I was trying to get a list of readers that would be closed...then I realized you weren't there...did I accidently take you off the list? or did you take yourself off?
That scandal you mention is the one on Ophra, right?
When will you be back in Puerto Rico? Did you read at your aunt's funeral? Thanksfor the book, I want to buy it...so I can write all over it!
The construction of identity in autobiographies takes us back all the way to the beginning of the written word. What fascinates me is that obsession of the author to sound authentic at all costs. I have followed Jamaica Kincaid writings for the last 15 years. I remember checking on the New Yorker at old Bell, Book and Candle in Condado to see if wrote any article or story. There was one that I specially liked. It was a piece on gardening. Jamaica narrated her life in Vermont and reminiscenced about life in Antigua. This specific selection was written in first person was very revealing of her changing identity. By comparing her life then and her life now she was revealing the process of invention. It would be great if you could get a hold of it. I know it appeared in either the New Yorker or The New York Times in the 90's. Of course we cannot forget the importance of the Colonial Complex ( we Caribbean suffer in one way or another)in the shaping of our identity: Eurocentrism etc. I think Jamaica would abhor living in Antigua were people know about her origins and will not put up with her "constructed" identity. God!, I wish I was at Border's having a great conversation on this subject.
So true Hector, I know that in Antigua they would not have accepted her new self; but now she has found a status and I noticed some reserved pride in the people there. Only, its reserved. A young girl, nursing student, said that they read her short stories...I'm thinking now that they probably call Annie John short stories. When she told Wendell and I that, I thought ...hum...could she mean "Girl" or one of the word sketches she wrote for the New Yorker? Now I think she must have read the same stories that children in the States and some English private schools in Puerto Rico, such as "A Walk to the Jetty," which is the last chapter of Annie John. I do have all of the New Yorker articles because they were collected together in a book that I bought. Kincaid also wrote The Garden Book: which shows how her identity is shifting. Her more recent work also. I'll have to get into that here with you since we cannot go and have a chat at Borders.
As strange as it sounds, I also remember Jamaica Kincaid's article on her garden in Vermont and how much she hated her mother's garden with such inelegant plants as panapén. I think I was a bit offended by the column, which may sound strange. If you hate the plants where you grew up, part of you hates the world. I wrote a poem about it. I will try to find it and post it here.
I like the phrase 'remaking identity through narrative', so Jamaica Kincaid changed her name and acquire another identity to become famous, or to be accepted, wow, she must have had a lot of inner conflict. What Mark said I really liked if she didn't like the plants where she grew up, she must hate the world; does she have Caribbean phobia, instead of homophobia, was she trying to delete her Caribbean past and then ironically she changes her name to sound Caribbean or African. She reminds of a short story, I can't recall the name, I think it's by Alice Walker, the main character changes the name to an
African name and then when she goes back home, I believe it's in the south, she wants to take the family quilt which was supposed to be for her sister, Cyn, you probably remember the story, wow JK is full of contradictions, I guess people in the Caribbean are very complicated and we can see it with ourselves. What is her nationality right now? British, American, Antiguan-British Commonwealth I'm thinking why write an autobiography when you are going to lie about your identity, write fiction instead, or is it that the drama of autobiography is more appealing to readers and sells more. I saw the movie "Fargo" and in the beginning it states that it is based on true events then, at the end they deny it, I felt fooled just like those people Mark was talking about who saw a play on the HOlocaust. YOu have a lot to analyze with JK, interesting as well.
Cynthia you have so much interesting information, you have it all there and you know it all. I saw a tiny laptop when I was coming here that I'm thinking of buying it when I decide to do oral history about my family, you should buy it as well, it's from Sam's and it costs $300, it's tiny tiny, tiny, you can take it everywhere and keep writing on the bus, train, car. Close your eyes , meditate and you'll see in "un abrir y cerrar de ojos", you'll be done. Amen, All is well.
Thanks, you guys/gal, for the comments. Energiz-er, the story your thinking of is "Everyday Use", I have some research about that, thanks for the connection. BTW Wendell charged a laptop at Best Buys-a present for my 50th. I think he wants to enourage me to write. It's not as compact as the one you mention, I'd like to see that!
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