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Autobiography as testimony
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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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Official URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-1...
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 the most widely used examples of testimony in autobiographical form are Victor Klemperer’s diaries from the Nazi years, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten (I want to bear witness to the very end, 1995), which formed the basis of a thirteen-part miniseries for German public broadcaster Das Erste in 1999. Following the cue from Klemperer’s editor, Walter Nowojski (2007), scholars have generally viewed the diaries as authentic documents by a truthful subject. Historians have called Klemperer “the irreplaceable witness of his times” (Schreiber 2008, 280) and the “tireless chronicler of barbarism” (Widera 2004, 26). The following analysis explores the justification for such claims about the autobiographer’s status as testimonial witness. These laudations capture the special respect awarded to autobiographical works that relate the life experiences of an individual while also engaging with—if not challenging—wider society’s understanding of its past. 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 audiences.
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||||
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Subjects: | C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CT Biography P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Autobiography, Autobiography -- Criticism and interpretation, Witnesses, Truth | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Palgrave Handbook of Testimony and Culture | ||||||
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan | ||||||
Place of Publication: | Cham | ||||||
ISBN: | 9783031137938 | ||||||
Book Title: | The Palgrave Handbook of Testimony and Culture | ||||||
Editor: | Jones, Sara and Woods, Roger | ||||||
Official Date: | 20 April 2023 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Number of Pages: | 630 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 159-183 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1007/978-3-031-13794-5 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 20 September 2022 | ||||||
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