My mom sent me a picture after the last competitive game of soccer I will ever play. The picture is slightly blurry, the kind of blurry that results when the camera focuses on the background rather than the subject. You can make out the figure of a five or six year old, a soccer ball under her right arm, with what looks like a bagel firmly gripped in the other. It’s recognizably me in the picture, as my hairstyle hasn’t changed that much since I was six, maybe a little longer and blonder but otherwise the same. I’m pretty sure the T-shirt I’m wearing is from the first soccer team I ever played on. We were called the Golden Eagles, a majestic name for a group of six year olds. There’s a contorted expression on my face. I can only guess the cause. On one hand, the expression might mean I-don’t-want-my-picture-taken, directed at my Dad, who is probably behind the camera. The other possibility, the more likely one, is that I am trying to hold back tears. If someone else were to see the picture they might not see it. But I know that face too well, primarily because it feels as if my entire soccer career were consumed by trying to hold back those tears.

What is the boundary between fiction and nonfiction? What happens if the line between the two is crossed? Can we possibly recall events in our lives exactly as they happened? In creative nonfiction, such as memoir, the audience expects the writer to recall things exactly as they happened, with no embellishments, re-ordering, additions, or subtractions. It seems as if authors of creative nonfiction are bound to be questioned about events, nitpicked on details, challenged on memories, and accused of portraying real-life people the "wrong" way. Yet when the writer creates fiction, it seems to go the other way: readers like to think there are parallels between an author and her stories. Readers congratulate themselves for finding the similarities between the two, and instead of focusing on the crafted story at hand, try to search out which parts are "true" and which are embellished. Does any of this matter, though; don't all stories tell a kind of truth? We have an insatiable urge to classify, to "know" the truth, but truth isn't merely a recollection of cold facts; likewise, a story isn't any less true if it's fiction.

This choreographic thesis describes the conceptual foundations underlying the development of the dance, Here. Here uses text and movement to explore the challenge of locating of locating oneself in this particular institution. It asks the questions: what happens when our personal needs conflict with the structure of this institution? How do we use our limited capacities to exist / resist / care for each other in this place? Reflections on Here describes the choreographic inquiries and discoveries that contributed to the development of Here. It includes research on desire and mourning, as well as reflections on the power of autobiographical dance. Reflections on Here analyzes the work of Bill T. Jones and Cynthia Oliver as a way of understanding how autobiographical dance and text may be used to support one another in performance. It examines how work in the studio as well as in performance can build a feeling of “compassionate power” onstage. This idea of “compassionate power” is used in this project to describe the somatic principles that may embody the loving action that takes place during collective organizing. These somatic principles include sensing and working with the weight of the body on the floor and working with momentum rather than forcing movements to take place. Reflections on Here analyzes how the idea of compassionate power infused the development of Here, and connects the work of choreographers who are concerned with showing personhood and their sociopolitical landscape onstage. Finally, Reflections on Here acknowledges the necessity for this choreographic project to be contextualized within – and connected to – the ongoing brave and compassionate organizing happening at Scripps College.

I have chosen to begin with an analysis of Megillat/Book of Esther because of its chronological placement as well as its status in Jewish tradition as the prototype of diasporic auto/biography. Briefly, it relates the story of a covertly Jewish queen who makes the decision to risk her life in order to save her people from genocide. (Professor Patricia K. Tull takes credit for the expression, the “Esther moment” to describe Esther’s choice to commit to her life-changing Jewish self-identification, with all its inherent risks.) Determination and recognition of the danger she faces are reflected in Esther’s comment, “If I perish, I perish.” Postcolonial theory is a prism through which to view the ancient story and ultimately relate its elements, particularly “the Esther moment,” to the diasporic auto/biographical narratives included in the dissertation. Robin Cohen’s explanation of the concept of victim diaspora will be contrasted with the Kabbalistic interpretation of diaspora as the divinely orchestrated means to mend the world. The teachings of the Ari, 16th century Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, as well as 20th and 21st century essays illuminate the discussion of the mystical myths and legends which offer a positive interpretation to several millennia of Jewish exile. A general overview of the genre of autobiography/life narrative includes 20th and 21st century theorists, i.e., Philippe Lejeune, Sidonie Smith, Julia Watson and others, who address specific issues related to modern technology’s role in creating life narratives. The journey extends from parchment scrolls through printing press book production to filmic representations. Though thousands of years separate Book of/Megillat Esther from the interviews, they are unified by significant commonalities. The dissertation will focus on some facsimile of an “Esther moment,” where a Jewish calling spoke to participants and altered the course of their lives. Accessible for viewing online, each narrative is informed by a review of the family’s earlier diasporic journey. Diasporic synergies for each narrative will demonstrate a confirmation of the hypothesis. Connecting to one’s Jewish roots can be viewed as reparation of a rupture, a cultural diasporic journey to reach, if not the physical point of origin, a spiritual homecoming. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 54). / This thesis is an organization of my thoughts on autobiography as it concerns my own life and my work as an artist. It incorporates the study I have made of traditional elements of autobiography. It includes a discussion of my understanding of the process of self - definition and discusses how my work in the media of performance and video have united my ideas concerning contemporary and conventional forms of auto-biography. / by Peter M. Codella. / M.S.

This PhD by practice is an attempt to understand personal archives through filmmaking, and the kind of knowledge we can extract from them as well as how we can connect them to a wider social and political context. These questions are the core of my research and are explored in their different ways through both the film/practice and dissertation. I have chosen to make a film about my absent grandfather and his lost relationship with my mother during Fascist Portugal between the 1940s and the 1960s. Family archives have been largely used in films as a way of documenting realities, in the same way as any other public archival footage. In this instance, I tried to explore family and official archives acknowledging their contradictions and omissions with a view to finding a new “way of knowing” that is more closely connected to our emotions. I believe we all own a family archive regardless of its form. I named this archive “the subjective archive” and in it, I include physical archives such as paper documents, photographs and films, as well as a more intangible archive, which includes our memories, the stories we tell and listen to (oral history) and our dreams. The progression of the film is closely related to my journey as I become immersed in the story and learn things through many layers of archive documents. As a conclusion, I argue that these invisible elements of the subjective archive contain truth independent of their indexical nature, whereas physical documents can mislead us.

Shi, Huiwen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-116). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / List of Abbreviations --- p.v / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction: an Opening --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- "Departure and Discovery: ""Revelation of the Self to the Self""" --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- "Archaeology: ""Restoration of the Culture to Itself""" --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- "Reflection and Imagination: ""Harmonious Reproduction of the Self""" --- p.78 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Conclusion: Continuity --- p.108 / Bibliography: --- p.112

In this collection of linked stories and shorts, the narrator reflects on important people and events in his life, particularly his high school and college years, primarily through first and second person points of view. The stories “Joanna” and “Honor Roll” are first-person narratives, while “Mr. Finethreads” is told from the third person. “Pictures from a Wedding” and “College | Collage” are considered modular fiction, which create a mock-autobiography out of the disparate pieces of the overall mosaic.

<p>This study investigates what continuities and divergences exist among selected Black autobiographies. The selected autobiographies of slaves, creative writers, and political activists are discussed both as texts produced by individuals who are in turn products of specific societies at specific periods and as interconnected books. The project pays particular attention to the various societies that produce the autobiographies directly to identify influences of environmental and cultural differences on the texts. To foreground the network these autobiographies form, on the other hand, the study adopts a cross-cultural approach to examine the continuities and divergences in them. The texts analysed are selected from Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean. Chapter one discusses some previous studies in Black autobiographies, the comparative model for studying Black autobiographies, the choice of the term autobiography, what constitutes Black autobiographies, and the self-in-service-of-community pattern of Black autobiographies. Chapter two theorizes Blackness as one of the continuities in the texts studied and foregrounds its transformative capabilities. Since various Black societies have experienced one form of colonialism or another and are in one post-colonial stage or another, chapter three discusses the relevance of post-colonial theory to a transnational study of Black autobiographies. Chapter four discusses oral African autobiographies as parts of institutionalised autobiographical traditions in African societies and the ways in which features of orality influence the written forms of the genre. Chapter five situates slave autobiographies as counter-narratives to the colonial encounter in William Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest</i>. Along with chapter five, chapters six and seven examine the continuities in Black autobiographies in terms of Blackness, resistance, the importance of naming, community, and rewriting history in the face of racist accounts of the past, and divergences in relation to concepts of Africa, religion, gender, and language. The concluding chapter summarises the continuities and divergences earlier discussed and suggests possible future directions in the study of Black autobiographies.

In 1959, Capote’s nonfiction novel entitled, In Cold Blood was written using artistic methods related to fictional writing.  In consciously writing in this manner, Capote revealed a controversial shift away from a more objectivity based, journalistic truth, prevalent at the time. By using these methods to portray in particular Perry Smith, Capote has provoked doubts surrounding his commitment to “truth” within the book.  Using a narratological analysis of certain significant passages of the book, Capote’s presence and a notable relation he has to Perry is implied and brought to the forefront.  In turn, this essay looks through these passages from the perspective of the genre of autobiography.  From this viewpoint, how the reader is able to uncover Capote’s “intentions” by identifying with and presenting himself through Perry in the narrative, is discussed. This essay concludes with the claim that due to Capote’s use of these artistic methods, the reader is provided with an autobiographical dimension to the narrative.  Consequently, the essay claims that it is because such autobiographical dimensions are described by Linda Anderson (in her book Autobiography) as having an “honest intention which then guarantees the truth of the writing” (3), that Truman Capote’s “true account of a multiple murder and its consequences”, [own emphasis added] should thus be justifiable, and in his way, honestly true.