How to interpret autobiographies

• Autores: Marta Cuesta
• Localización: Razón y palabra, ISSN-e 1605-4806, Nº. 76, 2011
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • Autobiography is a term for a particular practice of life narrative, a concept which celebrates the impact of the autonomous individual, but also the universalizing meaning of the life story. Autobiographical methods are very useful in connection with a postcolonial view, as these representations highlight questions about how personal legitimacy and testimony is articulated. All of these contextual narratives - voices that integrate place (i.e. Latin America), time (i.e. late modernity), specific society (i.e. Mexico) and special circumstances (i.e. ethnicity, gender, class, religion, etc), and the reasons (i.e. political, economical etc.) for mainstream acceptance (publication) of a specific story (testimony/witness) - have to be considered critically.