Final Project Critical Paper: Autobiograhical Truth and Reliability
For my final project, I decided to explore the truth and reliability of an autobiographical narrative. I went about this through a critical lens, as I wrote a traditional scholarly inquiry about the components that give an autobiographical narrative the authority to reliably tell a story. I wanted to explore this topic more concisely, as I was always curious about how trustworthy an autobiography could really be, considering we do not have the ability to recall our memories without the chance of distortion or error. If that is the case, then why do we immerse ourselves in autobiographical narratives when we know that the majority of them are not 100% true? What gives them the authority to tell their story?
To examine this concept, I used a series of scholarly articles, journal articles, experiments, general research, and the novel Reading Autobiography Now. To find these sources, I used Google Scholar, APA PsychInfo and other resources from other classes that I have access to (e.g. books in my psychology classes). In terms of Reading Autobiography Now, I first decided to center my project around the chapter, “What About Autobiographical Truth?” and investigate the components that the authors claim to authenticate an autobiographical narrative. Some of these aspects included historical context, material traces, and ethical decisions. However, throughout my project, I found myself also examining concepts from the chapter “Autobiographical Acts” and “Autobiographical Subjects” and relating them to truth through the lens of Machado’s novel, In the Dream House. I examined experience, historical context, purpose, and the narrated I to validate Machado’s personal accounts enough to create an honest and trustworthy narrative.
I chose Machado’s novel to discuss autobiographical truth and reliability, because of her encounter with authenticity herself, and how she manages to overcome this barrier through her unique style of writing. Essentially, Machado’s novel is able to do so because of her use of the second-person narrator that allows the reader to apply their own experience with the authors, her ability to admit to the potential for error helping others recognize her honesty and account for any falsehoods that may be present within a narrative, and through her purpose of writing her novel to raise awareness for abuse in queer relationships, and how she was able to intertwine her own experiences within this historical context.
When completing this project, there were definitely moments of strength and moments of weakness overall. In terms of strengths, I love conducting research and finding scholarly articles that I can analyze in the context of psychological components, like the malleability of memory in my project. I also felt like I had enough knowledge about both autobiographical truth and Machado’s In the Dream House, after all of the work we have conducted in this class. Unfortunately, I did find myself struggling with tying everything together and finding the right articles to help support my project. I also found myself having a hard time balancing all of my other work, while trying to stay on top of this. If I had more time to complete this, I think I would spend more time perfecting my essay and researching more about how things like confession, historical context, and second-person narration can strengthen autobiographical truth; I may have used other novels we had read, but I do think it would’ve complicated my essay much more.
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