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Why Are We Suspicious of the First Person Voice?

A thoughtful post from biographer Julija Šukys on her blog Writing. Life. Thanks to Andrew Westoll for the link.

“It’s easy to sneer at the glut of memoirs of the past decade, and to discredit the genre as somehow dishonest or narcissistic, but autobiographical texts and personal essays that really work are always about something bigger than the person writing them.

The best first-person texts flirt with navel-gazing, but are redeemed by insight, artistry, self-criticism, and honesty. By telling a story about their own singular lives, skilled autobiographers and personal essayists inspire revelations. In other words, these texts not only reveal something about the person writing them, but also about the one reading them.”

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Biography, Essays, Memoir, Women and Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Why Are We Suspicious of the First Person Voice?”

  1. Shaun Hunter Says:

    May 13th, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    Hi Susan — I’m having trouble with the link. It takes me to the current page in Julija’s blog, but not to the piece you talk about. Thanks.

  2. Susan Olding Says:

    May 13th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Thanks, Shaun. I think I have it fixed now!

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