This essay investigates how Norman Mailer’s “true-life” novel The Executioner’s Song may also be read as an autobiography. The novel contains strong traces of Mailer’s existential philosophy as related to sexuality, non-conformity and death. The essay discusses the nature of the relationship between truth as defined by the author and the function of autobiography to tell the truth about a life. The discussion centres around Mailer’s conviction that the novel is a better, i.e. more accurate vehicle for truth than is the autobiography. The essay argues that the truth which Mailer imparts is less the “true” story of Gary Gilmore and more the “true” story of Norman Mailer.

Background: Mental illness is growing rapidly today, with a population that is getting worse within a younger age. Parts of mental illness is linked to what we callself-harm, or self-mutilation. This in order to alleviate his/her anxiety as a result of a compulsion or impulse to add injury to one’s body, motivated by a need to master mental health or to regain emotional balance. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to illustrate how patients with self-injury behavior experience the attitudes and treatment in their received care. Method: This study is a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach of autobiographies written by persons with self-harm. Result: Positive treatment strengthens patient self-esteem, relieves inner suffering and anxiety, and provides a foundation for a trustworthy relationship between caregivers and patients, while negative treatment, stigmatization, preconceptions and ignorance of healthcare professionals contribute to an insecure care experience for this patient group. Conclusion: Nurses working with self-injurypatients should reflect on their treatment, occupational role and responsibility towards the patient, as this group often feels poorly treated in care. Clinical significance: The content of this study addresses the problemsof caring for patients with self-harm, which may help nurses and healthcare staff to contribute to better treatment and better care. / Bakgrund: Den psykiska ohälsan kraftigt ökar i dagens samhälle, med en befolkning som mår sämre i allt yngre åldrar. En del av den psykiska ohälsan är kopplad till det vi idag kallar Självskadebeteende. Detta i syfte att lindra sin ångest som en följd av ett tvång eller en impulsatt tillfoga sin kropp skada, motiverat av ett behov att bemästra psykisk ohälsa eller av att återvinna känslomässig balans. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa hur patienter med självskadebeteende upplever bemötandet inom vården. Metod: Denna studie är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats av självbiografier skrivna av personer med självskadebeteende. Resultat: Positivt bemötande stärker patienternas självkänsla, lindrar det inre lidandet och ångesten och gav en grund för en tillitsfull relation mellan vårdgivare och patient, där istället negativt bemötande, stigmatisering, förutfattade uppfattningar och okunskap hos vårdpersonalen bidrar till en otrygg vårdupplevelse för denna patientgrupp. Slutsats: Vårdpersonal som jobbar med självskadande patienter bör reflektera över sitt bemötande, sin yrkesroll och sitt ansvar gentemot patienten, då denna grupp ofta känner sig illa bemötta inom vården. Klinisk betydelse: Denna studie lyfter problematiken runt vårdandet av patienter med självskadebeteende, vilket kan hjälpa sjuksköterskor och vårdgivande personal vid vårdmöten.

Bakgrund: Anorexia nervosa drabbar vanligen unga kvinnor. Sjukdomen grundar sig i en skev kroppsuppfattning vilket leder till bantning för att nå en idealvikt. Personer diagnostiserade med anorexia nervosa kan ha en dålig självbild och bristande självförtroende vilket kan leda till självdestruktivitet och lidande. Sjuksköterskan behöver visa tillit och skapa trygghet i mötet. Professionellt stöd i form av kommunikation och interaktion kan skapa en god vårdrelation. Syfte: Att beskriva hur unga kvinnor diagnostiserade med anorexia nervosa upplever mötet med vårdpersonal. Metod: Datamaterialet består av fem självbiografier som har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Ur analysen framkom fyra kategorier; känna sig orättvist behandlad, hamnat i underläge, utsatt för maktmissbruk och tvång samt hopp och förtroende medåtta underkategorier. Konklusion:Mötet med vården upplevs både negativt och positivt. Det är viktigt att vårdpersonal respekterar de unga kvinnornas autonomi och engagerar dem i vården. Att vården präglas av ett etiskt perspektiv och att det avsätts tid till mötet är viktigt. Ett gott bemötande, adekvat kunskap och en icke-dömande attityd från vårdpersonalen är betydelsefullt. / Background: Anorexia nervosa usually affects young women. The disease is based on askewed perception of the body, which leads to dieting to reach an ideal weight. Individualswith anorexia nervosa can have bad self-image and low self-confidence which can result intoself-destructive behavior and suffering. The nurse during the meeting needs to show trustand create safety for the patient. Professional support by communication and interaction canestablished a good care relationship. Aim: To describe how young women diagnosed withanorexia nervosa experience the meeting with health professionals. Method: The datamaterial consists of five autobiographies that have been analyzed with qualitative contentanalysis. Results: The analysis revealed four categories; feel unfairly treated, ending up indisadvantage, exposed to abuse of power and compulsion, hope and confidence. A total ofeight subcategories emerged. Conclusion: The meeting with healthcare is experienced bothnegatively and positively. It is important that healthcare professionals respect the youngwomen’s autonomy and engage them in their healthcare. That the healthcare should becharacterized by an ethical perspective and that time is given in the meeting is important.Good treatment, adequate knowledge and non-judgmental attitudes from healthprofessionals are important.

Cette étude analyse un ensemble de narrations à la première personne du singulier rédigées au XVIIe siècle, ainsi que leurs conditions d’écriture et de réception. Cinq récits de vie de soldats ont fait l’objet de ce travail : les récits de Diego Suárez Corvín, Jerónimo de Pasamonte, Diego Galán de Escobar, Alonso de Contreras et Domingo de Toral y Valdés. L’étude s’attache dans un premier temps à l’analyse du contexte historique et militaire, qui conditionne fortement ces écritures personnelles. L’analyse du cadre culturel et idéologique de l’écriture sur soi au Siècle d’Or démontre que l’émergence de ces récits de vie ne peut pas être dissociée d’un ensemble de circonstances (théories aristotéliciennes sur l’histoire et la poésie, apparition de la notion d’individu et des premiers récits de soi à la Renaissance, contexte de réception) qui ont permis l’ouverture d’un nouvel espace générique dans lequel s’inscrivent ces récits de vie. Enfin, cette étude s’attache aux enjeux et aux stratégies d’écriture de ces récits de soldats : ces aspects légitiment l’inclusion de ces textes dans le cadre théorique et générique de l’autobiographie, et font également apparaître la présence d’influences intertextuelles qui démontrent que ces auteurs ont écrit en fonction de matrices d’écriture et qui permettent, d’une certaine manière, le passage de la vie à la littérature. / This research analyses a corpus of five first-person narratives written in the 17th century as well as the context in which they were written and the way they were received. These five self-narratives are from soldiers named Diego Suárez Corvín, Jerónimo de Pasamonte, Diego Galán de Escobar, Alonso de Contreras and Domingo de Toral y Valdés.First of all, the study focuses on the historical and military context which strongly influenced the writing of these self-narratives. The analysis of the cultural and ideological contexts of autobiographical writing in the Golden Age shows that the emergence of these self-narratives is intermingled with a number of historical elements (the Aristotelian theories on history and poetry, the emergence of the notion of individual and of the first self-narratives, the context of their reception) which led to the creation of a new theoretical space to which these self-narratives belong. This research also deals with the issues and strategies at stake in these soldiers’ writings. These elements make it relevant to include these writings in the theoretical and generic genre of the autobiography. They also reveal inter textual references which are clear evidence that these writings were produced according to writing patterns, which enabled, in a way, the passage from life to literature.

Didier-Georges Gabily, Jean-Luc Lagarce et Jean-François Peyret ont la particularité d’avoir tenu, entre 1977 et 2008, un journal personnel. S’il s’agit d’explorer ces matériaux, encore peu étudiés dans le champ des études théâtrales, l’enjeu de la réflexion est de mesurer les apports du jeu diaristique à l’exercice théâtral. Les déplacements de l’un à l’autre sont envisagés dans ce que Philippe Lejeune nomme l’« espace autobiographique ». Dans cette perspective, les journaux ne constituent pas de nouvelles clés de lecture pour l’œuvre mais bel et bien des pièces maîtresses d’un jeu identitaire, ouvrant un dialogue sans fin entre fictions théâtrales, romanesques et textes autobiographiques. La première partie de la réflexion propose de cartographier ces journaux d’un genre particulier en observant d’abord comment la vie de l’homme et celle du théâtre y cohabitent. Comme pour de nombreux! autres artistes, le journal incarne l’espace d’un atelier : on tentera alors d’observer l’élaboration de l’écriture dramatique et on se demandera dans quelle mesure le journal peut constituer une mémoire de l’acte théâtral, par essence éphémère. La seconde partie est divisée en chapitres monographiques : pour chacun des trois auteurs, on arpentera le chemin du journal au théâtre sous l’angle d’une perspective unique ; la tentation autobiographique chez Jean-Luc Lagarce, la question lyrique chez Didier-Georges Gabily et celle du rapport à l’Autre chez Jean-François Peyret. / A common feature of Didier-Georges Gabily, Jean-Luc Lagarce and Jean-François Peyret is that they all kept personal diaries between 1977 and 2008. A study of this as of yet unexplored material from the point of view of theatrical studies can help measure the contribution of the diaristic play to theatrical practice. Movements from one to the other are considered in what Philippe Lejeune calls the “autobiographical space”. In this perspective, diaries do not constitute new reading keys for the works, but rather the cornerstones of an identity game that opens an endless dialogue between theatrical fictions, novels and autobiographical texts. The first part of the work attempts to map these distinctive diaries by observing how they account for both the artist’s life and his theatrical life more generally. As for many other artists, the diary embodies the space of a workshop: I will endeavour to observe the elaboration of dramatic writi! ng and speculate as to the extent to which the diary can constitute a memory of the theatrical act, which is essentially ephemeral. The second part is divided into monographic chapters. For each of the three authors, the path from diary to theatre will be viewed from a single perspective: the autobiographical temptation for Jean-Luc Lagarce, the questions of lyricism for Didier-Georges Gabily, and of inter-personal relationship for Jean-François Peyret.

[pt] Esta pesquisa propõe que a desmotivação que marca a relação de muitos jovens com a escola poderia ser abrandada caso existissem mais espaços de diálogo com os agentes da instituição, especialmente em situações que permitissem aos alunos a expressão de seus dilemas, sugestões de mudanças e acolhimento das mesmas. Este pressuposto surge da articulação entre referências teóricas da sociologia da juventude e da educação, da psicologia e da filosofia da linguagem, que indicou a necessidade de estudar-se o jovem em sua condição situada, agente que constroi sua própria identidade através da linguagem e da narrativa. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi, por um lado, compreender quais são os discursos que competem na construção da identidade aluno dos jovens participantes da pesquisa e, por outro, avaliar como as situações de expressão individual e de interação permitem que essas identidades se (re)elaborem de forma consciente. Para tanto, convidamos dois grupos de jovens do Ensino Médio de uma escola pública na zona sul do Rio de Janeiro para participar de oficinas de elaboração de um roteiro e de videogravação. Desenvolvemos, com base na abordagem de pesquisa autobiográfica, uma metodologia composta por três partes: (1) uma redação autobiográfica individual, (2) a elaboração coletiva de um roteiro de inspiração autobiográfica e (3) uma entrevista individual videogravada. A análise dos depoimentos dos participantes mostrou que, apesar de apresentarem dilemas semelhantes próprios da fase de transição e do contexto socioeconômico em que vivem, os jovens elaboram de formas diversas suas identidades e projetos de trajetória de vida. / [en] This research suggests that the lack of motivation that marks the relationship of many young people with school could change if there were more opportunities for dialogue with the institution, specially through providing situations that allow students to express their dilemmas and ideas. This assumption stems from the connection found between theoretical references in the areas of sociology of youth and education, psychology and philosophy of language. Such connection indicated the need to study the student in his/her situated condition, as an agent who constructs his/her own identity through language and narratives. The aim of this study was first, to understand what are the competing discourses in the construction of student identities for those involved in the research, and, second, to analyze how the situations of individual expression and interaction allow those identities to be consciously re-constructed. To this end, we invited two groups of high school students from a public school in the city of Rio de Janeiro to participate in workshops and prepare a script that would then be video.

[pt] O principal objetivo de minha tese reside na análise das peculiaridades do gênero autobiográfico, o qual possui um compromisso com a constituição (mesmo que inconsciente) de um projeto identitário. Apesar da aparente fidelidade a verdade do ocorrido, própria da escrita historiográfica, a evocação do autor desloca sua narrativa mimética do campo da reprodução para o campo da produção, sem, no entanto, transgredir o real, ato realizado pela narrativa ficcional. Apesar de não postular limites categóricos entre estes gêneros narrativos, e, pelo contrário, defender a possibilidade de um constante diálogo entre eles, acredito que a interlocução não apague as fronteiras existentes entre os diferentes discursos. Esta tênue diferença consiste na capacidade do autor em manter seu compromisso aporético durante o ato criação, a manutenção, portanto, da hierarquia das intenções no momento da escrita. Para identificar tal diferença, cabe ao leitor ser capaz de engendrar em sua análise um mínimo de interseção entre seu repertório, ou seja, o conjunto de normas sociais inerentes ao leitor e, consequentemente, à sua recepção da obra, e o repertório do texto, a hierarquia das intenções presente no processo de produção dos discursos. / [en] The main objective of my thesis is the analysis of the peculiarities of the autobiographical genre, which has a commitment to the configuration of an identity project. Despite the apparent commitment with the truth, which is proper of the historiographic genre, the act of recollection shifts the Mimetic narrative of the field of reproduction to the field of creation, without transgressing reality, act performed by the fictional narrative. The author doesn t defend categorical boundaries between these genres, on the contrary, defends the possibility of a constant dialogue among them, even though, these dialogues do not delete the existing border between the different speeches. The subtle difference between genres resides on the ability of the author to keep your commitment during the act of creation, his ability to maintain the hierarchy of intentions during his writing. To identify such a difference, it is up to the reader to be able to engender in his analysis a connection between his repertoire- social conventions that orients his reading – and the text repertoire, which means the hierarchy of intentions that is present during the production of the speech.

[pt] Nessa pesquisa analisaremos a relação entre cinema documentário, história e memória a partir de três filmes brasileiros: Utopia e Barbárie (Silvio Tendler, 2010), Diário de uma busca (Flávia Castro, 2011) e Uma longa viagem (Lucia Murat, 2012). Esses documentários se voltam para o período da ditadura civil-militar brasileira (1964-1985) ao mesmo tempo em que os diretores se inserem como personagens na narrativa. Os conceitos de memória, autobiografia e documento foram explorados a partir das diversas perspectivas adotadas em cada um desses documentários. Desse modo, investigaremos as diferentes estratégias cinematográficas, quanto ao uso de arquivos audiovisuais, testemunho e narração, na montagem. / [en] This research examines the relationship between film documentary, history and memory based on three Brazilians films: Utopia e Barbárie (Silvio Tendler, 2010), Diário de uma busca (Flávia Castro, 2011) and Uma longa viagem (Lucia Murat, 2012). These documentaries address the period of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) in Brazil at the same time the directors put themselves in the narrative. The concepts of memory, autobiography and document were explored from the diverse perspectives adopted in each documentary. Thereby, this research investigates the different strategies in the montage, as the use of audiovisual archives, testimony and narration.

Cette recherche étudie les parcours d’expatriés français dans le cadre postcolonial de mobilités françaises, un ancien empire colonial en Asie du Sud‐Est, en Malaisie, une ancienne colonie britannique. La parole et en particulier la parole autobiographique sur l’expérience de la mobilité lointaine et de l’altérité y est analysée avec une focalisation sur l’articulation entre discours individuels et collectifs, et le rôle de l’expérience de l’altérité dans la construction des identités. L’analyse de la parole d’expatriés français, plurilitteraciée et collectée sous forme de récits écrits, d’entretiens de recherche et de blogs, fait l’objet d’une analyse interdiscursive. Le champ discursif concerné est délimité et caractérisé grâce aux analyses existantes sur le discours pluriséculaire de l’Occident sur l’Orient, telles que celles proposées par des auteurs comme Bill Ashcroft, Tzvetan Todorov ou Edward Said. Du point de vue méthodologique, l’approche proposée par l’analyse discursive critique a inspiré la démarche et les objectifs de cette recherche : il s’agit d’identifier une problématique sociale (et aussi individuelle, ou intime) d’ordre sémiotique sur laquelle la connaissance produite aura valeur émancipatoire. Afin de répondre à cette injonction critique, l’analyse porte sur le contexte de production des discours (le territoire colonisé ou postcolonisé, le voyage lointain d’ouest en est, le discours francophone lettré), les relations dialogiques de ce discours, le discours lui‐même linguistiquement et structuralement. L’analyse critique interdiscursive permet d’en mettre en question le pouvoir normatif et la potentielle valeur prescriptive. Cette connaissance produite pourra avoir la valeur émancipatoire de considérer la possibilité de l’émergence d’un discours progressiste sur l’expérience de l’altérité dans la construction des identités. / In a postcolonial context, this research looks into the itineraries of French expatriates, from a former colonial empire, in Malaysia, a former British colony. The autobiographical discourses of the French expatriates, blogs, research writings and research interviews, are analyzed in terms of the articulation between individual experiences and collective representations, interrogating how experiencing alterity, as well as writing or speaking about it, participates in the construction of identities. The discourse analysis is dialogical and takes in consideration a larger field of discourses: the centuries‐long orientalist discourse as theorized by Bill Ashcroft, Tzvetan Todorov or Edward Said. Critical discourse analysis defines this research from a methodological standpoint as well as in its aims: it focuses upon a social problem (as well as individual and personal) which has a semiotic aspect, to produce knowledge which can lead to emancipatory change. With this aim, the analysis focuses upon the contexts (postcolonialism, orientalism and modern mobilities) and the dialogisms, as well as the corpus discourses. The critical and interdiscursive analysis aims to question the order of discourse, its hegemony and prescriptive value. The knowledge hence produced can lead to emancipatory change in the postcolonial discourse on alterity and identities.

Representing revolutionary terrorists as heroes and martyrs was a typical feature of the mythology of the Russian revolutionary underground at the beginning of the 20th century. This mythology described Underground Russia, the world of the revolutionaries, as an ideal country inhabited by ideal people. The purpose of that epos was to represent the revolutionary struggle, and individual revolutionaries in such a way that they would gain sympathy from the wider public and become role models for other revolutionary fighters. Sympathetic representations of women who committed political violence seem to be especially shocking in the context of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, since female violent behavior contradicted the existing gender order. Employing theoretical perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis, gender history and intersectionality, the dissertation analyzes the way narratives about the individual life paths of female terrorists of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (the PSR), the biggest socialist party in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, were constructed in their revolutionary auto/biographies. It analyzes how the lives of women from different social and ethnic origins, of different ages, with different life paths, who happened to be united only by their participation in the political terrorism of the PSR, were recounted with the help of narratives used in the Russian revolutionary underground. The research findings demonstrate that the accounts of the lives of female PSR terrorists were constructed with the help of the dominant narrative that was formed as a conversion story. Within the framework of that narrative, the lives of individual women were adapted to the dominant discourse of heroism and martyrdom, and at the same time were contextualized within the dominant discourse on “good” femininity that existed in the Russian society, and even within the discourse on Jews as perpetual “Others” in the Russian empire in case of Jewish women. Social and ethnic backgrounds as well as individual circumstances of the terrorist women, however, transformed the dominant narrative, and thus created diversity of representations. The discursive practice of writing a revolutionary life accepted by Bolsheviks influenced the discursive practice employed in revolutionary auto/biographies of female terrorists written during the early Soviet period.