Critical Option:
Our initial conversation last week about Solito last week focused on how Zamora’s tightly controls the narration, focalizing the entire memoir through the perspective of the nine-year-old “narrated” I. In other words, the distinction between the narrating “I” and the narrated “I” is almost entirely collapsed. The resulting narrative, because it is delivered from the point of view of a nine-year-old, can seem more straightforward and simple on many levels, from diction and voice to plotting and character development. The question I want to focus on today will allow us to frame this authorial choice less in terms of what it takes away from the narrative and more on what it adds or affords. In your response, write about how Zamora’s decision to focalize through his younger self shapes some of the key facets of autobiographical subjects and acts. Focus on just one concept each from the chapters on “subjects” and “acts” in Reading Autobiography Now, and do your best to articulate your response in a way that focuses on what the limited narrational perspective affords.
Creative Option:
Take a significant life moment and narrate it, as tightly as you can, from the perspective of the immediate subject of that experience. After you draft the narrative moment, reflect on the outcome. How did the constraints on perspective inform the details you mentioned, or the characters you represented, or the situation you framed?
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