Autobiography: Installment No.3

ESSAY 3

Writing an autobiography involves a matching up of a specific plot-structure with a set of historical events. The autobiographer wishes to endow these events with a particular meaning. Some writers see this process as "essentially a literary, that is to say, fiction-making operation." The document, the autobiography, is still a historical narrative. It is one of the ways a culture has of making sense of both personal and public events. For it is not the events of a life that are reproduced through the writer's description; rather, it is a direction to think about these events, a charging of the events with "different emotional valences," that the writer produces. Of course, a writer does not like to see his work as a translation of "facts" into "fiction." But the crisis in both historical thought and in the writing of autobiography may be illumined by the insights gained from this perspective.

The ordering of events in a temporal sequence does not provide any necessary explanation of why the events occurred; for a history, an autobiography, is not only about events, it is also about possible sets of relationships, only some of which are immanent in those events. For the most part they exist in the mind of the writer and the language he or she uses. Hayden White argues that "if there is an element of the historical in all poetry, there is an element of poetry in every historical account." History is made sense of in the same way that the poet or novelist tries to make sense of it. The unfamiliar and mysterious is made familiar. Both the real and the imagined are subjected to a process aimed at making sense of reality. For this reason history often appears fictionalized and poetry often appears like reality, like history. Writers of poetry and fiction, says Hayden, impose formal coherence on the world in the same way writers of history do.

Such a view, if taken seriously, would go a long way to freeing historians from being captive of ideological preconceptions. Drawing historiography closer to its origins in literary sensibility, in the literary imagination, may help to increase understanding. For an increase in facts does not necessarily bring understanding. Chronicles of events, the sense of 'what really happened,' types of configurations of events, the emplottment of sequences of events, are determined as much by what facts are put in as what are left out and by the extent to which the writer can engage in constant currection and revision, in tireless seeking out of new information.

Aristotle saw poetry as unified, intelligible and based on the subordination of the part to the ends of the whole. History on the other hand was organized around continuity and succession, a congeries of events and is not intelligible in the same way as poetry is. He associated history with the unexpected, the uncontrollable, the unsystematic. Poetry he saw as part of an ordered and coherent schema. Poetry was, to Aristotle, a more serious, a more philosophical, business than history. It speaks of universals; history of particulars.

About the Author:

Ron Price
2.1 Articles and Reviews: Journals
1. * "A History of the Baha'i Faith in the Northern Territory: 1947-1997," Northern Lights, 25 Installments, 2000-2002.
2. * Periodic Articles, poems and letters in "Newsletters," Regional Teaching Committees of the NSA of the Baha'is of Australia Inc., 1971-2001.
3. * Periodic Articles, poems and letters, Baha'i Canada and The Australian Baha'i Bulletin, 1971-2001.
4. * "Memorials of the Faithful," Baha'i Studies Review, September 2001.
5. * "Review of Two Chapbooks: The Poetry of Tony Lee," Arts Dialogue, June 2001.
6. * "Asia and the Lost Poems: The Poetry of Anthony Lee," Art 'n Soul, a Website for Poets and Poetry, January 2000.
7. * "The Passionate Artist," Australian Baha'i Studies, Vol.2, 2000.
8. * "Memorials of the Faithful," Australian Baha'i Studies, Vol.1, No.2, 1999, p.102.
9. * "Poetry of Ron Price: An Overview," ABS Newsletter, No.38, September 1997.
10. * "Thomas a Kempis, Taherzadeh and the Day of Judgement," Forum, Vol.3, No 1, 1994, pp.1-3.

---

Writing Internal Newsletters: How to Build Your Network and Your Reputation

To help build your profile and reputation within a large... Read More

How to Catch the Writing Bug

----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute,... Read More

10 Things that Keep You from Writing Your Book? and What You Can do About It

9 out of 10 professionals and small business owners have... Read More

Tell the World About You

You have a new website, or a new business, or... Read More

Business Letter Etiquette

Business etiquette is fundamentally concerned with building relationships founded upon... Read More

8 Ways to Write a Winner Book Fast!

Have you given up on getting your book out of... Read More

Characters In A Romance Novel

Before you even begin writing your novel, you need to... Read More

Imagine The Imagination

Imagine a three hundred page book was in the author's... Read More

Six Tips for Creating More Lifelike Story Characters

Working on my first humorous novel, I started with a... Read More

How to Write Headlines for How-to Articles

Want to write a how-to article but can't come up... Read More

Learn to Talk on Paper: The Art of Effective Business Writing

Rudolf Flesch, a specialist in writing skills, ran classes... Read More

The Author Within

Just about every marketer on the Internet claims to be... Read More

How to Relax Your Writing

Q. My writing sounds stiff and stilted. Help!A. Memories of... Read More

Top Seven Ways to Select a Book Topic That Sells

Authors need to write their book according to their target... Read More

In Your Own Words

More Tips For New Writers (Part I)Explain in your own... Read More

Break in with Fillers: The Best Market for New Writers

Interested in breaking into writing or breaking into a new... Read More

Recommendation Letters Demystified

There is a lot of confusion about recommendation letters.Recommendation letters... Read More

Teachers Should Write, During Their Summers

Before I became a teacher, I was a sports writer.... Read More

Effective Editing: It Spells the Difference!

If you think proofreading equals editing, then you're wrong! Editing... Read More

Water to Swim In

Not long ago, I took stock of my unrealized desire... Read More

Does Your Fight Scene Pack a Punch?

Long ago, movie directors mastered the technique of creating a... Read More

Do You Plot With Your Character In Mind?

Creative Writing Tips ?You are plotting the story. You write... Read More

Increase Your Chances Of Winning Writing Contests

Winning writing contests can provide several advantages to writers. For... Read More

An Inside Look at Proofreading

This is the ideal topic for us all to think... Read More

Why Every Freelance Writer Needs A Website

What do you mean, you don't have a website yet?... Read More

How Are You Plotting?

Creative Writing Tips ?Writing is a creative process and how... Read More

Is Now the Time for a Play about the War in Iraq?

Everone knows that comedy is mostly about timing. If you... Read More

Learning to Question Your Elephant Child: Who, What, Where, When and Why

Having problems writing? I don't know why. San Francisco Chronicle... Read More

How Long is a Chapter?

How long should your chapters be?I can't resist... I have... Read More

Reasons for Recording Your Life Story

1. No one else will do it for you.2. No... Read More

Screenwriting, Screenplays, Screenwriters ? Good Ideas for Stories

The principle for writing good screenplays begins with good idea... Read More

Help! I Cant Write!

Writer's Block can strike like a King Cobra, paralyzing every... Read More

Screenwriting, Screenplays, Screenwriters ? Incremental Productivity

When attempting to understand Creativity and Innovation, it pays to... Read More