Autobiography testimonial

Autobiography as testimony is, then, always more than a first-person account of a historically significant event.
This chapter examines both how autobiographical material is framed and presented by its author, and how it is received and put to use as testimony by different.
A very personal view of an Irish scandal; a comprehensive survey of mystical beliefs; and a dystopian sci-fi novel where humanity is on the brink.

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Auto/Biography Review

About the Journal

Auto/Biography Review: Expanding Perspectives on Life Studies and Narrative Analysis. An international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring theoretical and empirical aspects of autobiographical and biographical research, fostering academic interest in the representation of historical and contemporary lives.

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Christmas Reading: Volume 5 Now Published!

December 19, 2024

We are pleased to announce that Volume 5 is now published! We want to extend our thanks to all authors and reviewers and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We look forward to your submissions in 2025. All best wishes, Carly and David.

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Volume 5, No. 1.

Published May 6, 2024

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Autobiography as testimony

Stone, Katherine and Woods, Roger (2023) Autobiography as testimony. In: Jones, Sara and Woods, Roger, (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Testimony and Culture. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 159-183. ISBN 9783031137938

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Abstract

Our period in history is characterised by a growing interest in the experience of survivors of traumatic events, the large-scale production and dissemination of their testimony, and the integration of this testimony into our accounts of the past and present. These developments are reflected in the popularity of autobiography and its use by researchers and practitioners, ranging from historians and psychologists to documentary filmmakers and playwrights. Among

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Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas

It is often assumed that Testimony and Autobiography are clearly distinct genres. On this view Testimony conveys eye-witness reports of particular tragic events, whether momentary or of longer duration (e.g. years in a concentration camp), while Autobiography is seen as more chronologically extended and more introspective. However, since many Holocaust narratives incorporate “testimony” into a larger lifenarrative which, among other things, traces the psychological effects of trauma in later years, it seems reasonable to see Testimony, at least in some instances, as an aspect of Autobiography. As always, such generic markers should be seen as heuristic indicators, not as inflexible taxonomic categories. Most serious writers agentially deploy, develop and combine generic possibilities. One such writer is Jacob G. Rosenberg, Australia's finest Jewish autobiographer and a world class figure in Holocaust writing. Born into a Bundist family in Lodz in 1922, Rosenberg is the author of two award-winning autobiographical