Resisting the Autobiographical Imperative: Anatole Broyard, Mixed Race and SilencePosted in Literary/Artistic Criticism, Live Events, Media Archive, Oceania on 2011-02-12 02:25Z by Steven |
Resisting the Autobiographical Imperative: Anatole Broyard, Mixed Race and Silence
HISTORY & POLITICS ON WEDNESDAY
Research Seminars in Modern History & Politics
Department of Modern History, Politics, and International Relations
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
Room 127, Building W6A
2011-03-23, 12:00-13:15 AEST (Local Time)
Maureen Perkins, Associate Professor of History, Anthropology and Sociology
Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
What does it mean when someone refuses to write their autobiography? Have they ‘failed’ in some way? This was the accusation made against the journalist and writer Anatole Broyard, (1920-1990). But in our celebration of the therapeutic work done by life writing, do we do a disservice to those who make a rational decision to refuse that therapy? In The Haunting of Sylvia Plath Jacqueline Rose writes about the demands of ‘the biographical imperative’: ‘Are we meant to be sleuths, piecing together fragment on fragment until the picture is spread before us? There she is! Sylvia Plath—nothing hidden’.
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