Writing a life from fragments: Interweaving fragmented memories to establish identity in Life Writing

Tavener-Smith, Taryn (2024) Writing a life from fragments: Interweaving fragmented memories to establish identity in Life Writing. In: Fragmented Lives Conference, 12 - 15th June 2024, University of Iceland.. (In Press)

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Abstract

Scholar Janet Malcolm (2010) acknowledges the unreliable nature of memory, which invariably falters, offering merely a glimmer or a hint about a subject, while showing “nothing sharply or clearly” to the recaller, attempting to recollect experiences. To this end, she argues for the necessity of inventing oneself and own identity when writing a life. It is through this undertaking that we utilise memory to shape our identities by reflecting on the past, and, perhaps more poignantly, by accumulating these fragmentary memories to relate stories about our lives. As part of my PhD project, I propose an experimental approach to constructing biographical memoir within the life writing genre. The project experiments with the boundaries of form by applying a fragmented narrative structure comprising ‘biography vignettes’ and ‘memoir vignettes’ to mimic the faltering of memory while addressing issues pertaining to fragmented identities reconstructed from fallible memories. In this paper, I argue for the use of such fragmented narratives to mimic the infallibility of the way in which memory functions through a temporally fragmented narrative structure.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Depositing User:	RED Unit Admin
Date Deposited:	01 May 2024 09:29
Last Modified:	01 May 2024 10:30
URI:	https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/19070

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