The Literary Voice and Alternate Ways of Knowing in a Corpus of Mexican American Women�í Border Autobiographies Edición Única

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(2) THE LITERARY VOICE AND ALTERNATE WAYS OF KNOWING IN A CORPUS OF MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S BORDER AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY TESIS DOCTOR EN ESTUDIOS HUMANÍSTICOS CON ESPECIALIDAD EN LITERATURA Y DISCURSO. INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO Y DE ESTUDIOS SUPERIORES DE MONTERREY CAMPUS MONTERREY. POR DONNA MARIE KABALEN VANEK JUNIO DEL 2007.

(3) Dedication To Roberto, Monica, Robert, Denise, Martin and Marice.

(4) Acknowledgement I would like to thank the doctoral program in Humanities Studies, the Department of Humanities Studies, and the School of Humanities and Social Studies for their intellectual and material support; Alicia Veronica Sanchez, for meeting with me every week, for your continuous encouragement given with a smile and sense of peace; Blanca Lopez de Mariscal, for your generous spirit and example; Judith Farre Vidal, Beatriz Mariscal Hay, Maria Eugenia Ramos, Claudia Reyes Trigos, hies Saenz Negrete, for your willingness always to share knowledge and experience; Robertha Leal, and Hector Villarreal for your technical expertise; Susana, Alejandra, Sergio, Ana Gaby, Arlette, Alberto, Marcelo—this would not have been possible without your help..

(5) iii. Contents. Introduction Chapter 1. Life Writing in the Border Autobiographies of Four Mexican American Women 1.1. Three Phases of Critical Perspectives Concerning Autobiography 1.1.1. First Phase of Criticism: Autobiography as a Historical Document and Basis for Knowledge 1.1.2. A Second Phase of Theoretical Perspectives: Autobiography as a Literary Text and as Art 1.1.3. A Third Phase of Perspectives: New Notions of Autobiography 1.2. The Border Autobiography: A Definition 1.3. A Corpus of Women's Border Autobiographies: The Addresser, Addressee and Publication History Chapter 2. Narrative and Descriptive Discourse in a Corpus of Mexican American Women's Border Autobiographies 2.1. Narrative Discourse in the Border Autobiography 2.1.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 2.1.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 2.1.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 2.1.4. Hoyt Street 2.2. Descriptive Discourse and the Communicative Situation in the Border Autobiography 2.2.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 2.2.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 2.2.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 2.2.4. Hoyt Street Chapter 3. Recovering Cultural Memory in Four Mexican American Women' s Border Autobiographies 3.1. A Semiosphere of Border Autobiographies 3.1.1. The Semiosphere and the Dynamic Quality of Semiotic Structures 3.1.2. The Concept of Border 3.1.3. The Concept of Text and the Border Autobiography 3.1.4. Cultural Memory in the Border Autobiography. 1 17 18 19 25 43 75 88. 103 106 112 122 135 147 159 164 170 175 186. 195 196 201 205 207 212.

(6) iv. 3.2. The Effect of Cultural Explosion on Cultural Memory. 216. 3.2.1. Perspectives on History 3.2.2. Cultural Explosion and Changing Borders 3.3. History and Memory in a Corpus of Border Autobiographies 3.3.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 3.3.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 3.3.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 3.3.4. Hoyt Street 3.4. Representation of the Cultural "Other" 3.4.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 3.4.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 3.4.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 3.4.4. Hoyt Street. 217 224 229 230 236 244 251 255 257 262 266 272. Chapter 4. Social Practice and Imaginary Formations Expressed by the Female Subject 4.1. Discourse Production and Mechanisms of Power and Ideology 4.2. Habitus as Social Practice 4.2.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 4.2.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 4.2.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 4.2.4. Hoyt Street 4.3. Imaginary Formations Expressed by the Female Subject 4.3.1. "Early Life and Education," and Dew on the Thorn 4.3.2. Romance of a Little Village Girl 4.3.3. A Beautiful, Cruel Country 4.3.4. Hoyt Street. 282 292 297 .306 313 322 328 332 344 349 356. Conclusion. 365. Works Cited. 379. 279.

(7) Introduction Contemporary Mexican American' autobiography began to be recognized as a "distinct genre" with the publication in 1988 of the special issue of The Americas Review. This publication focused on "U.S. Hispanic Autobiography" and the works of writers such as Oscar Zeta Acosta (The Brown Buffalo), Ernesto Galarza (Barrio Boy), Richard Rodriguez (Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez), Gary Soto (Living Up the Street) and Anthony Quinn (The Original Sin), were deemed as important contributors to the development of the genre. Of particular interest in this collection of essays is Genaro Padilla's study entitled '"Yo sola aprendí: ContraPatriarchal Containment In Women's Nineteenth-Century California Personal Narratives" which includes references to nineteenth century women such as Apolinaria Lorenzana, Maria de las Angustias de la Guerra, Eulalia Perez, Maria Inocente Pico de Avila, Rosalia Vallejo de Leese whose autobiographical utterances involve self-identification and "gender related issues" (95) that deal with the woman's realm of experience. The narratives provided by these women form part of the Bancroft Collection of the University of California.". Scholars such as Genaro Padilla use the term Chicano which generally refers to first-generation Americans born to Mexican parents. Thus, although it is a term used to refer to Mexican Americans, as suggested by Bruce Novoa, it is a term associated with the Chicano Movement, a socio-political struggle that took place as part of the civil rights movement of the 1960's. Use of the term Chicano is also related to a sense of ethnic pride. In My History, Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography, Padilla focuses on autobiographies which pre-date what is considered as the Chicano period (1943 to the present). He considers the term to be "more historically representative [...] than "Chicano," which is a "recent self-designation" (xi). For the purposes of the present investigation, and because the works under consideration refer to more than one socio-cultural system, I have chosen to use the term Mexican American. " Padilla has noted that of the one-hundred and fifty California narratives in this collection, less than forty are representative of the female voice. ..

(8) 2. In a more recent discussion of contemporary trends in the development of Mexican American autobiography, Charles Tatum has presented a list of twenty-six works which he defines as contributing to Chicana/o canon building. In his lecture, "Voces únicas: Trends in Contemporary Chican/o Autobiography", which was delivered in 2006 at the International Conference on Chicano Literature, he mentions the works of Acosta, Galarza, Rodriguez, and Soto. Of this list of works, which is not an exhaustive one, Tatum mentions autobiographies written by the following women: Gloria Anzaldiia, Norma Cantii, Gloria Lopez-Stafford, Pat Mora, Cherrie Moraga, Sheila Ortiz Taylor, Sandra Ortiz Taylor, and Mary Helen Ponce. In addition to this list he also includes This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, an anthology which includes life writing by women of color. It is important to note that a number of scholars have undertaken the study of autobiographies that have to do with the life narrations and writing of Mexican Americans who express their experiences during the Transition Period (1848-1910), the Interaction Period (1910-1942), and the Chicano Period (1943 to the present).3 As I have mentioned, Padilla's archival work in the Bancroft Library of the University of California Berkeley has resulted in the uncovering and analysis of narratives concerned with early Mexican American life experiences. His 1993 text, My History, Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography, involves a close look at the works of Mariano G. Vallejo's "Recuerdos históricos y personales tocante a la. 3. These time periods refer to the historical development of Hispanic literature in the Southwest and are based on those designated by the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, which has to do with "locating, rescuing from perishing, evaluating, disseminating and publishing collections of primary literary sources written by Hispanics in the geographic area that is now the United Slates from the Colonial Period to 1960" See Nicolas Kanellos. "Forward." Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1993) 13..

(9) 3. alta California," Juan Seguin's Personal Memoirs as well as Rafael Chacon's "Memorias". These narratives provide documentation of the Mexican "discursive response to American conquest" (44) prior to and after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Padilla's text includes a detailed discussion of the twelve women whose testimonials were recorded by the Bancroft field team, and he also presents an analysis of the importance of Romance of a Little Village Girl by New Mexican author Cleofas Jaramillo. Here he emphasizes Jaramillo's "desire to inscribe her own experience" (197) through her life story. It is through the "discursive response" evident in these narratives, then, that alternative histories become evident; thus Mexican American autobiography can be seen as situated "outside the formal boundaries scholars have traditionally reserved for autobiography as a singularly selfdisclosing text" (29). Besides these early California memoirs, it is important to mention those autobiographies involving the lives of women written prior to the Chicano movement. The autobiography of Olga Beatrice Torres, Memorias de mi viaje, written in 1913, presents an account of the author's family members as they flee the Mexican revolution and later settle in El Paso, Texas. Another recovered autobiography, The Rebel,4 written in the 1920's, is a narrative written by Leonor Villegas de Magnon who was originally from Mexico but then became a border activist in the area of Laredo, Texas. In her text the author narrates her support of the Mexican Revolution as a member of the Junta Revolucionaria and as founder of the Cruz Blanca which. 4. This text was originally published as a series in The Laredo Times between March and June of 1961. It was later recovered and published by Arte Publico Press and with the cooperation of coordinators of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. It has been classified as part of the early Chicano period of writing. This text has been published in English as well as in Spanish as La Rebelde..

(10) 4. offered care to the revolutionary forces in Mexico and the United States. Jovita Gonzalez is considered one of the "escritoras mexico-americanas pioneras en la produccion literaria generada en el sur de Texas" (Reyna 184). In addition to portions of her writing that were published in Folklore Publications, she also authored Caballero: A Historical Novel, as well as a brief autobiography, "Early Life and Education," and the autobiographically informed novella, Dew on the Thorn. An early New Mexican autobiographical account written in Spanish is that of Maria Esperanza Lopez de Padilla. In poems such as "Simplicidades" and "Maria Esperanza" which are included in Los pobladores Nuevo mexicanos y sn poesia, 18891950, she emphasizes everyday life through references to cultural traditions, and objects within nature. She also recalls her childhood and the poems recited by her father and other members of the community. Other female authors who write from the area of New Mexico include Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert (The Good Life; We Fed Them Cactus), and Nina Otero-Warren (Old Spain in Our Southwest). All of these women wrote texts that combined information regarding folklore, the cultural life of Hispanic New Mexico, as well as personal life history. In addition to these early narratives, of particular interest are two texts that focus on the lives of young girls who grew up during the years prior to and during the early years of the Chicano period. The first of these is Eva Antonio Wilbur-Cruce's autobiography, A Beautiful, Cruel Country. This narrative focuses on life in the border region between Arizona and Sonora. Although Wilbur-Cruce was born in 1904, she would not begin writing her autobiography until much later in life. In her autobiography, Hoyt Street, Mary Helen Ponce draws the reader's attention to her.

(11) 5. childhood and early adolescence as she grows up in the Mexican American barrio of Pacoima in California. This text which began as a collection of stories, eventually evolved into a narrative that focused on family and friends, social practice and cultural contact between Anglos and Mexican Americans. The above mentioned works certainly have contributed to the Mexican American literary repertoire, however because they present semi-public and public discourse concerned with everyday aspects of women's experience, they are often considered as peripheral to the canon of Chicano literature. As noted by Ramon Saldivar, the "reasons for the continued exclusion of women writers from the history of Chicano narrative are as complex as are the reasons for the sexism of any other literary tradition" (172). It is precisely because of the historical exclusion .of texts written by Mexican American women that I undertake a reexamination of a corpus of five autobiographical works. "Early Life and Education" and Dew on the Thorn by Jovita Gonzalez (1904-1983), deal with life experiences in Texas and were written most probably during the time period from 1926 through the 1940's; both texts were published in 1997. Romance of a Little Village Girl, which focuses on life in New Mexico, was written by Cleofas Jaramillo (1878-1956) when the author was in her seventies and was first published in 1955.. A Beautiful, Cruel Country, by Eva. Antonio Wilbur Cruce (1904-1998), introduces the reader to history and a way of life that developed in Arizona. This text was created over a ten-year period and published in 1987 just eleven years before the author's death. Hoyt Street, authored by Mary Helen Ponce (b. 1938), began as a research paper during the period of the autobiographer's undergraduate studies (1974-1980), and was published in its present.

(12) 6. Diagram 1 Author. Title of Work. Jovita Gonzalez (1904-1983). "Early Life and Education". Jovita Gonzalez (1904-1983). Dew on the Thorn. Cleofas Jaramillo (1878-1956). Romance of a Little Village Girl. Eva Antonia Wilbur-Cruce (1904-1998). A Beautiful, Cruel Country. Mary Helen Ponce (b. 1938). Hoyt Street. Time Period When Written Most probably during the time period from 1926 through the 1940's Most probably during the time period from 1926 through the1940's "Written when she was in her seventies" (xiii); therefore the text was written after 1948. Written over a ten-year period, the text was begun before the author was in her eighties, or prior to 1 984. Begun as a research paper at California State University Northridge where she studied from 1974-1980. In 1988 she was in the process of creating a book.. Date(s) of Publication 1997. Publisher(s) Arte Publico Press, Houston. 1997. Arte Publico Press, Houston. First edition: 1955 First UNM Press edition, 2000. First Edition: The Naylor Company, San Antonio; Republication: The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. First Edition UA Press edition, 1 987; reprint edition, 1991; digital edition, 2004 First Edition UNM Press, 1993. The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

(13) 7. form in 1993. By listening once again to the voices that speak through these border autobiographies, and on the basis of a close analysis and interpretation of each text, the purpose of the present study is to provide a more clear understanding of a corpus of narratives that emanate from a specific geographical space within the United States, that is, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California—areas that are tied historically to conflicts between Mexico and the United States. As the reader may recall, the period between 1845 and 1848 marks the beginning of an important historical juncture in the history of Mexico and the United States. This historical time frame corresponds to America's project of manifest destiny which had to do with the idea of a national destiny designated by providence to occupy the whole of the continent. Territorial expansion had its beginning as far back as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and one of the expansionist aims in the War of 1812 was the conquering of Canada. Furthermore, as a result of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, the U.S. also received territorial rights to Spanish Florida.. As. suggested by John S.D. Eisenhower, in addition to early western exploratory expeditions that took place during the Jefferson administration, [i]n the course of the next four decades other expeditions followed, and Americans became aware of the 'Oregon territory'5 occupied jointly by the United States and Britain. They also learned of the lands to the southwest, under the shaky control of Spain until 1821 and thereafter under that of Mexico. Migrations of American settlers to the west were well under way as of 1844, when the annexation of Texas, long an objective of American diplomacy, became an acute issue in the United States (xix). 1. The Oregon Territory would eventually he organized into the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. This area also included portions of present-day Montana, Wyoming, and Canada..

(14) 8. Texas independence from Mexico and its annexation to the United States in 1845 were key factors that contributed further to conflict between the two nations, and ultimately war in 1846. The war between Mexico and the United States resulted in Mexican cession of half its territories. The region acquired by the U.S. included what has become the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. It is precisely the result of this history of conflict and its social and cultural effects on both Mexicans and Americans in these regions that are of interest here, especially in terms of the way information regarding these aspects are registered within the literary text. As Raymund A. Paredes has noted, "Mexican-American literature began to exhibit a distinctive character in the last third of the nineteenth century, a generation after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and transformed over 80,000 Mexicans into residents of the United States" (31). It was through the literary text, and as I argue in the present study, particularly the autobiography, that early and later generations of Mexican Americans gave voice to a cultural memory that referred to those changes wrought by history and changing borders. I would suggest, therefore, that the voices of autobiographers such as Gonzalez, Jaramillo, Wilbur-Cruce, and Ponce are relevant because they speak of life experiences of women who were born prior to the advent of the Chicano movement.6. It is important to note that, according to the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, Gonzalez's narrative can be located in the Interaction Period, whereas the works of Jaramillo, WilburCruce and Ponce correspond to the early Chicano period. However, each of these autobiographical works focuses on life prior to the Chicano period..

(15) 9. That is, their works provide the reader with information regarding history, social practice, and ideological perspectives that contribute to the preservation of a distinct cultural heritage that involves the world spheres of New Spain, Mexico, and the United States. This, I believe, is their contribution to the Mexican American literary tradition. In order to discern the distinctive notions concerning the autobiographical form, and as a first step in approaching this group of texts, I begin my discussion in Chapter One with a survey of the various perspectives concerning the genre of autobiography. For analytic purposes I have divided this overview into three phases. In the first phase of critical perspectives I review the work of two theorists, Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Misch, both of whom emphasize the importance of the representative male life as a means of arriving at historical truth. In the second phase I consider authors such as Georges Gusdorf, Francis R. Hart, Karl Joachim Weintraub, William Spengemann and James Olney. In this section I examine the problematic of representation within autobiography and the inability of the autobiographer to provide truth with regard to the self. In the third phase of criticism, I choose to concentrate on post-structuralist and postmodern points of view presented by theorists such as Elizabeth Bruss, Louis A. Renza, Paul De Man, Philippe Lejeune, Estelle C. Jelinek, Janet Varner Gunn, Domna C. Stanton, Paul John Eakin, Sidonie Smith, Shari Benstock and Francois Lionett. I also explore the contributions of Julia Watson, Genaro M. Padilla and Leigh Gilmore. In this portion of my discussion I focus on the way in which poststructural and postmodern criticism contributes to an understanding.

(16) The Literary Voice and Alternate Ways of Knowing in a Corpus of Mexican American Women's Border Autobiographies. >.. Chapter 1 : Life A/riting \ in the Bord sr Autobiographies ^Mexican America n Womer^. Chapter 3: Recovering Cultural Memory in Four *•. ivicAiuctn AMimnucin. ^ t. ^. '1 . 1 . Three Phases^ [l .2. The Bord er of Critical Autobiography: Perspectives A Definition Concering Autobiography ^. t. /3.1. A. ] f\. 3. A Corpus of > Women's Border t J Autobiographies: The Addresser, Addressee and Publication ^History ^. +. Women's Border Autobiographies +. J. +. +. . ^ (3.2. The Effect of ^ ^3.3. History and ^ 3.4. Representation ] Semiosphere of Cultural Explosion Memory in a of the Cultural Border on Cultural Corpus of Border "Other" J /^obiographies (Memory j Autobiographies. \ 1r. Chapter 2: Narrative and Descriptive Discourse in a Corpus of MexicanAmerican Women's Border ^ Autobiographies ^ .. i 2.1. Narrative Discourse in the Border Autobiography ^. , t 2.2. Descriptive ' Discourse and the Communicative Situation in the Border Autobiography ^1. /uhapter 4: Social Practice] and Imaginary Formations Expressed by the Female <• Subject V. -. ,. J. * + ^ C 4.1. Discourse ^ \ 4.2. Habitus as ] f 4.3. Imaginary Production and 1^ Social Practice J Formations Mechanisms of Expressed by the Power and (^ Female Subject^, ^ Ideology J.

(17) 11 of those strategies that underlie the life writing of women particularly in terms of the way self-disclosure in relation to others takes place within the narrative. In addition to a critical analysis of these perspectives, I present my own definition of the border autobiography, a term which I suggest more closely defines the multi-structurality of the texts created by Gonzalez, Jaramillo, Wilbur-Cruce, and Ponce. Because I am interested in the communicative function of each autobiography, the final section of the first chapter focuses on the publication history of each work, I also explore the individual autobiographer's intention in writing her life story as well as those she intends to address through her text. The next three chapters of the study are based on an operational model that takes into consideration both discursive and semiotic perspectives which function as the organizing principles of a critical analysis and interpretation of the corpus. Those broad areas to be examined include historical references, as well as social practice, cognitive schemes, and ideology, all of which are evident within each text. Chapter Two involves two sections, and the first is concerned with narrative discourse. My approach in this direction begins with a definition of discourse based on Foucault's notion of the term as a "general domain of statements" which often responds to certain regulatory practices. Within this chapter I also suggest that narrative can be understood as both a textual and cultural phenomenon. From a textual perspective I consider Gerard Genette's definition of various aspects of narrative such as chronological deviations. I also consider the definitions of narrative suggested by Gerald Prince and Mieke Bal. In terms of the text as a cultural phenomenon I refer to Donald Polkinghorne's view of narrative as the means by which individuals invest.

(18) 12. experience with meaning. Furthermore, so as to clarify the development of the life course evident within each narrative, I present a chronotopic analysis of those life experiences highlighted within the autobiography; special emphasis is placed on the symbolic spaces in which they occur. This portion of my discussion is based on Bakhtin's definition of the "real-life chronotope," particularly the way in which the autobiographical "self-consciousness" is organized around memory concerned with ancestral ties. The second section of Chapter Two examines the descriptive discourse of each text, with special emphasis on the concepts of "land" and "home." For this portion of the chapter I refer to the Neuchatel School and the concept of natural logic as defined by Jean-Blaise Grize, Jean Michel Adam, and Andre Petitjean. This portion of my discussion emphasizes the effect of descriptive discourse within the text. Chapter Three involves a textual analysis of each narrative based on cultural semiotics. I initiate my discussion with a brief overview of the concept of culture as a polysemic notion; the various definitions of culture taken into consideration include these presented by theorists such as Matthew Arnold, Edward B. Tylor, Bronislaw Malinowski, Clifford Geertz, Edward Said, and most importantly, Raymond Williams and Renato Rosaldo who both emphasize the multiple shades of meaning of the term. Ultimately, however, my analysis is informed by Yuri Lotman's defninition of culture as non-hereditary memory that is shared by a community or social group. The present study asserts that the corpus of works considered here can be defined as a semiosphere of border autobiographies. My discussion in Chapter Three, therefore, is derived from the theoretical perspective of Yuri Lotman and the concept of the semiosphere as an abstract space in which cultural systems exist as a semiotic.

(19) 13. continuum. As a means of understanding the recollections of each autobiographer, I focus on Lotman's perception of cultural memory as a mechanism through which certain types of communication or texts are conserved and transmitted. As I point out, from this perspective the text can be understood as cultural memory, as a generator of meaning, as heterogeneous, and therefore as polyglot. Of further importance in my discussion is the concept of border or boundary. Again, I refer to Lotman's usage of the term to designate not only physical or geographical limits, but also the function of the text as a filter or translator of external messages. In addition to these concepts which inform my analysis, and as a means of understanding the historical references evident in each text, I also refer Lotman's view on cultural explosions between semiotic spheres. In the final section of this chapter I draw attention to memory as it is related to "other" cultural groups that form part of the heterogeneous representation of life in the border autobiography. In Chapter Four I attempt to arrive at an understanding of discursive production and mechanisms of power and ideology that are represented in each narrative. Furthermore, I am interested in what discourse reveals about collective practice, individual female identity and her position within the cultural collectivity. My textual analysis in this chapter focuses on cultural practices and ideological systems evident in each text. I initiate my discussion with references to the definitions of ideology presented by Michel Foucault, John B. Thompson, and Olivier Reboul. Of particular relevance to my analysis is Foucault's project concerning the politics of discourse, especially in terms of societal control of discourse production. I also refer to Thompson's perspective regarding the operation of narrativization, and Reboul's.

(20) 14. notion of "diffuse" ideologies as they are used to justify prevailing power structures. With respect to the way ideology is expressed, I refer to Fowler's definition of both "directive" and "constitutive" linguistic practices. In the first section of this chapter I draw attention to the social legacy that the autobiographer intends to preserve. Pierre Bourdieu's notion of habitus and the "cultural field" inform my analysis as I attempt to interpret the effect of social practice on the female subject. In order to discern the way in which the autobiographer enters into dialogue with the reader, the second section of this final chapter examines the imaginary formations evident within each text.. Here my analysis is based on the. work of Michel Pecheux who has suggested that discourse is always pronounced from a particular position or place within a social formation. He notes three structural elements—A, B as producers and receivers of discourse, and R as a discursive referent. Therefore, I ultimately attempt to map out the autobiographer's perception of self and the way she addresses others, that is, her family and the Anglo reader of her text. I also concentrate on her perspective regarding referents such as male and female authority figures. Finally, my reading and interpretation of each text involves an examination of the female subject's response to sexual ideology. The major objective of this study, then, is a multi-structured interpretive analysis of the following five works: "Early Life and Education," Dew on the Thorn, Romance of a Little Village Girl, A Beautiful Cruel Country, and Hoyt Street. Through a detailed analysis of these texts concerned with life in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, I intend to demonstrate that the notion of the border autobiography provides me with a critical framework for understanding the meaning generated in the.

(21) 15. works of four Mexican American female writers. The border autobiography presents the voice of the female writer who has chosen to write about her life, the life of her family and other members of society, those elements of history that have affected the community, and her knowledge about social practice. Thus, on the basis of an analysis of both narrative and descriptive discourse, and a semiotic analysis of history and cultural memory evident within each text, I intend to interpret the way in which the autobiographer presents herself, her family, a cultural community, and the cultural "other." Furthermore, I intend to arrive at a more clear understanding of the social practice represented in the text as well as those discourses perceived within the text that point to the marginalized, border position of women within a patriarchal society..

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(23) Chapter 1. Life Writing in the Border Autobiographies of Four Mexican American Women. The corpus of texts created by Jovita Gonzalez, Cleofas Jaramillo, Eva Antonia Wilbur-Cruce, and Mary Helen Ponce are heterogeneous in terms of their narrative form, and all of the texts involve life writing by a female author who writes from a border position. That is, the autobiographer presents her life story which involves an identity that has its origins in Spain and/or Mexico, thereby situating her sense of ethnic self within the symbolic border region between Mexico and the United States. In addition, these texts also involve references to common socio-cultural practices as well as a historical past which involves the present-day states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, geographical areas that were at one time under the rule of New Spain, Mexico, and then the United States. The analytic approach to this group of the texts will first of all involve an examination of the history of criticism concerning autobiography and other selfreferential forms. I will begin by looking at the term "autobiography" given that all of the texts under consideration include elements of this genre. However, as pointed out by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson in Reading Autobiography, "when 'life' is expanded to include how one has become who he or she is at a given moment in an ongoing process of reflection, clearly the autobiographical story requires more explaining" (1-2). Because these texts involve complex form and content, they most certainly require "more explaining". The basis for this explanation is related to the following questions: In what way do theoretical notions regarding autobiography evolve, and how do these various perspectives contribute to a more thorough.

(24) 18. understanding of the group of heterogeneous texts considered for the present study? What particular autobiographical elements are evident in these texts and in what way do these elements open windows for understanding the meaning of these works? Is it necessary to determine a definition that is more specific with regard to the type of literature that comprises the present corpus*? As a means of addressing these questions the present analysis will focus on the history of criticism of autobiography based on the theoretical criteria of a number of key authors. In this chapter I consider specific variables of analysis: the definition of autobiography, the evolution of the notion of autobiography as a distinct "genre," and the autobiographical subject. In addition I briefly look at the forms and strategies of the autobiographical narrative emphasized by each theorist, as well as those canonical texts which are referred to in their analyses. Ultimately, as I shall point out, the texts created. by. Gonzalez,. Jaramillo,. Wilbur-Cruce,. and. Ponce. are. complex. autobiographical forms that can be defined as border autobiographies.. 1.1. Three Phases of Critical Perspectives Concerning Autobiography One of the most important aspects of the autobiographical form of writing has to do with memory as it is registered within the text. In Memory, History, Forgetting, Paul Ricoeur asserts that a distinctive feature of memory is the presence of those '"marks'," [or] semeia, in which the affections of the body and the soul to which memory is attached are signified" (12). Autobiography is a type of self-referential writing that signifies different types of memory, therefore, it is pertinent to consider two questions that Ricoeur sets before the reader: "Of what are there memories?.

(25) 19. Whose memory is it?" (3). These questions, I believe, are also of particular importance in understanding the different phases of perspectives concerning autobiography that I review here. I would like to point out that my goal is not an exhaustive survey of theory concerned with the genre, rather I have chosen those sources that highlight the variety of definitions of the genre and how these might be related to the works analyzed in this study. As we shall see, each phase of criticism suggests a shift in emphasis that varies from an early focus on the memories of "great men" and the historical significance of the exceptional life, to the creative aspect of memory, and finally, to new notions on memory as it is related to self-invention.. 1.1.1. First Phase of Criticism: Autobiography as a Historical Document and Basis for Knowledge Early notions of the genre of autobiography refer to the writer as involved in a process of self-discovery and the position of the individual as an outstanding figure within society. In traditional studies of autobiography, elements such as history and subjectivity are seen as "stable elements in the story of one's life. Texts that affirm this stability, or that can be construed as affirming it, form the 'tradition' of autobiography" (Gilmore 5). For example, the traditional autobiographical text conforms to what Gilmore notes as the "Augustinian lineage" where the autobiographical subject would be a man who is white, most probably heterosexual and of an elite status. Here it is important to refer to the ideas of Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Misch who provide a framework regarding early notions of autobiography. In his work on autobiography, "The Historical Relevance of Autobiography and Biography" in.

(26) 20. Pattern and Meaning in History,1 Dilthey gives autobiography a preponderant position to history as it is related "to the development of society. For example, he suggests that autobiography can be seen as "the germinal cell of history" and as the "highest and most instructive form in which the understanding of life comes before us. Here is the outward, phenomenal course of a life which forms the basis for understanding what has produced it within a certain environment" (85-86). Of importance is Dilthey's use of the word "phenomenal," and the idea that a particular autobiography is of interest because it presents us with the course of a life that serves as a means of understanding what is deemed outstanding in the context of a historical period. In fact, as a historian, Dilthey proposed the use of autobiography as a means of writing about history, as "the root of all historical comprehension" (86). Of particular importance to Dilthey, then, is the insight that autobiography provides as a means of understanding the historical past: "The power and breadth of our own lives and the energy with which we reflect on them are the foundation of historical vision. It alone enables us to give life back to the bloodless shadows of the past [...] it makes the great historian" (87). Thus, it. >y examining the individual. life, and those historical elements that were responsible for its formation, that we are able to understand the human world. Because it is the "phenomenal course of a life" that interests Dilthey, his theorizing focuses on those autobiographies which present different phases of a great man's life.. 1. Although the English text was published in 1960, it was translated from Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den eisteswissenschaften , (The Construction of the Historical World in the Human. Sciences pp. 68-106 in Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. VII, 1927 [1907])..

(27) 21. This critic specifically notes the autobiographies of Augustine, Rousseau and Goethe as "typical forms." • For example, in his discussion of St. Augustine's Confessions, Dilthey suggests that one is able to comprehend the life of a man where the life process has to do with seeking to achieve an "absolute value" such as the possibility of conversion as part of a process for understanding man's eternal relationship to God. He also emphasizes Goethe's work, Dichtung und Wahrheit because it involves the perception of a man's existence "from the standpoint of universal history" (88). In addition to the above mentioned autobiographers, Dilthey also mentions Bismarck, who is defined as a man of "action." He suggests that by tracing the development of this type of life one is able to find the "particular combination of characteristics common to them all" (94); these characteristics would be of interest to future generations who presumably would model their lives after this type of man. The importance of the autobiography for Dilthey, then, is its informative function; that is, society would achieve instruction by reading about the life of a great man whose life portrayed those characteristics that were "common" to other great. men. From this viewpoint, the great feat of the autobiographer is his capacity to find the "threads" of his life and set them down in writing as a coherent whole. Insight into the individual subjectivity of experience, however, is considered by Dilthey as narrow. He instead suggests that the autobiography of the prominent individual is of importance in terms of the way it relates to universal history. Man looks back on his past and links together the different parts of his life, and it is the way that this life is linked together with other "great" lives throughout history that is of interest to.

(28) 22 Dilthey. It is by analyzing "individual contexts" especially those related to experience in areas such as religion, art, and politics that the historian is able to delve into the structure of the world of history. Also in line with Dilthey's thoughts are the perceptions of German philologist, Georg Misch regarding the history of autobiography which he defines in terms of the meaning of the word itself, that is, "the description (graphia) of an individual human life (bios) by the individual himself (autos)" (5). Misch's History of Autobiography in Antiquity, presents autobiography as a genre in literature that is "special" and which "defies classification" (3-4). Indeed, for Misch, this type of literature is seen as a subcategory of biography.. Just as Dilthey points to the connection between. autobiography and history, Misch too points out that autobiography provides "documentary value for knowledge of the world and of man" (1). He also suggests that this type of writing involves psychological and moral perspectives of a particular period as "an original interpretation of experience" (4). For Misch, then, because the perspective of the writer of autobiography is "original," it provides the basis for the accumulation of knowledge. It is here that we can perceive a parallel to Dilthey's notion regarding autobiography's informative function. Like Dilthey, Misch refers to the "great" or ancient autobiographies that are considered models.. For example, he particularly emphasizes Plato's "Seventh. Epistle" as well as Isocrates' autobiographical "oration in court," and the records of deeds evident in the documents of Emperor Augustus. Misch also sees the writings of St. Augustine, Rousseau and Goethe as exemplary, and he praises Augustine's Confessions as the writing of a 'homme superieur\ in which "the concentrated.

(29) 23. expression of the nature of an individual, an age, a race" is found (3). Once again, we find an exaltation of the great individual whose writing is a "manifestation of man's knowledge about himself (8) as well as how his life is lived during a particular epoch in connection with the world that surrounds him. Misch, then, is concerned with "human life as actually lived by individuals, and [...] the social and historical 'world' in which they live" (8). Thus, autobiography is perceived as "always" representative of the period in which it is written; therefore, its function is as an "instrument of knowledge" (10), and not simply a medium through which self-awareness is expressed. Furthermore, he asserts that any autobiography that deals with the average way of life is considered to be inferior in quality. Evident in Misch's perspective is the fact that the life described must be a representative one, a view that is similar to the ancient Greek notion of the Platonic and rhetorical autobiography as mentioned by Bakhtin. Both were public accounts of the exemplary life or that of another "realized either as verbal praise of a civicpolitical act or as an account of the self ("Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel" 131). Indeed, as Misch points out, "[a]mong the special relationships in life it is chiefly the self-assertion of the political will and the relation of the author to his work and to the public that show themselves to be normative in the history of autobiography" (14). Notable here are the limiting connotations of Misch's definition concerning the role of autobiography as a medium of self-description in relation to a public space; that is, we can assume that he sees the autobiographical writer as one who works and is involved in the political sphere where the so called discursive 'selfassertion' would take place. Thus, the writer of autobiography would necessarily.

(30) 24. form part of a cultural elite. It is precisely this restrictive notion of the author's public position that can be understood as a limiting factor in Misch's understanding of the genre. Misch emphasizes that, "[tjhough essentially representations of individual personalities, autobiographies are bound always to be representative of their period, within a range that will vary with the intensity of the authors' participation in contemporary life and with the sphere in which they moved" (12). As Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson have noted, the criteria of this definition have their roots in the "German tradition of Geistesgeschichte (the spirit of the historical moment)" and they "are both restrictive and prescriptive in arguing for what is 'great'" (Reading Autobiography 114). Indeed, the phrases that stand out in Misch's discourse are definitely limiting. For example the use of linguistic markers such as "bound" and "always" points to the fixed and confined nature of the definition of autobiography which will only be valid if the author participates within a particular "sphere" with certain "intensity". As I have noted, this perspective coincides with the rigid parameters of autobiography presented by Bakhtin in his analysis of ancient Greek forms of self expression which had to do with public autobiography that was directly related to an elite state structure. These early forms included the entire areas of art and science, and it was through this complex "apparatus" that truth was ultimately made known. Initially then, the spoken autobiographical account was related to a dominant state structure and the individual's relation to it as a legitimizing structure. It is clear, then, that the definitions of autobiographical writing presented by both Dilthey and Misch.

(31) 25. can be understood in relation to ancient notions of autobiography which had the effect of fomenting the legitimization of certain types of lives as exemplary and representative of truth. What is evident from the definitions of autobiography as presented by both Dilthey and Misch is that there is no room for the voice of those who do not contribute to the accumulation of historical knowledge within a particular, and we must assume, dominant society. For example, because autobiography must be "representative" of the socio-cultural period in which it is written, it would obviously have to reflect the way of life of the dominant society as well. The subject of this type of life writing, then, would necessarily reflect a way of life that is considered to be superior; thus life writing was not to be concerned with the 'average life.' On the basis of these notions of exclusion, it becomes obvious that the female voice of the autobiographer who writes from a doubly marginal position, that is as a woman and as a Mexican American, would not be considered as worthy of study from the perspective of Dilthey and Misch.. As we shall see, it is the next generation of critics who offer a. more creative perspective regarding the autobiographical form as they consider elements other than those which point to the "representative" life of a "great men" who contribute to knowledge of a historical period.. 1.1.2. A Second Phase of Theoretical Perspectives: Autobiography as a Literary Text and as Art As we have seen, early notions of the autobiographical form were concerned with the autobiographer's experience as the basis for understanding a particular world; that is, the written word of the text was important because it reflected the expressions.

(32) 26. of an exceptional individual within a given historical time period. The text, then, was seen as a document which provided a key to understanding the world by examining the life of those men who were considered models. With the second phase of criticism, there is a notable shift in emphasis from the historical, from the "bios" to that of individual consciousness of the subject of the autobiographical text which is now perceived as a literary form, and therefore, as art. According to Smith and Watson the theoretical considerations that most affected this change were those concerned with class-consciousness as determined through Marxist analysis which focused on the relation between. individual. consciousness and broad economic forces. The authors also note the effect of Freud's psychoanalytic theory which suggests a struggle between the "self and . "forces occurring outside conscious control" (Reading Autobiography 124). It is because of this struggle that the possibility of attaining "conscious control" over individual identity or experience is seen as impossible; therefore, speaking "truth" in autobiography is considered unattainable. For example, in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life Freud suggests that our everyday usage of language includes errors in speech, reading, and writing as well as "faulty recollections;" these are not coincidences or accidents, but rather, they reveal something that has been repressed into the unconscious (69-95). It is precisely the subtleties of unconscious purposes evident in language usage that contribute to what is considered as the creative aspect of the autobiographical form in the second phase of theorizing. The authors I consider in my discussion of this second phase of theoretical criticism are Georges Gusdorf, Francis R. Hart, Karl Joachim Weintraub, William.

(33) 27. Spengemann and James Olney. Although the principal lines of theoretical criticism of Gusdorf and Weintraub have been strongly influenced by Dilthey and Misch, Spengemann and Olney, who are considered as key contributors to this period of theoretical criticism, both mention this second phase as involving an examination of self-representation and its inability to provide "truth" with regard to the self. Belgian theorist, Georges Gusdorf, and French theorist, Francis R. Hart are authors that are presented by both Spengemann and Olney as those responsible for initiating this new questioning of truth-telling in the autobiographical act. I would like to note here that I have chosen those authors whom I consider to be important representatives of this period; however, I am not suggesting that this is an exhaustive list. I have also chosen to analyze these critics because certain aspects of their theoretical perspectives will ultimately contribute to an understanding of the autobiographies of the authors under consideration for the present investigation. James Olney suggests that Georges Gusdorf s essay "Conditions et limites de 1'autobiographic" is a key work in the study of autobiography, especially in terms of the genre with its focus on the study of the "I." As Olney notes, "it was this turning to autos—the "I" that coming awake to its own being shapes and determines the nature of autobiography and in so doing. . . opened up the subject of autobiography specifically for literary discussion, for behind every work of literature there is an T informing the whole" ("Autobiography and the Cultural Moment" 21). It is precisely along these lines that Gusdorf s analysis takes place as he points to "the curiosity of the individual about himself (31) and most specifically with regard to the future..

(34) 28. Ge >!'fjes Gusdorf suggests that autobiography is limited in terms of time and space, ai. exists under certain conditions. That is, it has its beginnings as "a late. phenomenon in Western culture, coming at that moment when the Christian contribution was grafted onto classical traditions" ("Conditions and Limits of Autobiography" 29). Therefore, autobiography is defined as not existing "outside of our cultural area" (29); rather it is a Western and Christian form in that it focuses on self-consciousness. Gusdorf understands autobiography as a genre that is "solidly established" and as being "traceable to a series of masterpieces" of the Western tradition (28). Although. he suggests that the purpose of autobiography is the. achievement of self-knowledge through the interpretation of an entire life, he further notes the importance of the genre as more than a presentation of historical objectivity, or even as solely a literary mode. Rather, it is the anthropological function of the autobiography where inner consciousness is projected into an exterior space that is important. In spite of these limiting aspects of Gusdorf s definition, that is, his suggestion that autobiography is based on the historical consciousness and individualism expressed in a series of Western masterpieces, he also notes that autobiography involves the possibility of "composing" and "reconstructing of life across time" (38); therefore, he suggests the idea of the reconstruction of a personal history, but one that involves creative nuances. Gusdorf perceives autobiography as "a new spiritual revolution: the artist and the model coincide, the historian tackles himself as object" (31). The change that Gusdorf points to concerns private, rather than public history, and it is autobiography that can be seen as "the mirror in which the individual reflects.

(35) 29. his own image" (33). From this perspective, each "man" has a history, one that is worthy of narration. The subject becomes his own witness and expresses a "more profound sense of truth as an expression of inmost being . . . not as he was, not as he is, but as he believes and wishes himself to be and to have been" (45). What becomes evident here then, is the notion of creativity in terms of the narratives concerned with self. In Gusdorf s account the "narrative of a life cannot be simply the image-double of that life" (40). He states that because one's life unfolds on a day-to-day basis and because one's "conscious schemes" combine together with that which is considered as unconscious, it is impossible to separate the two. These ideas coincide clearly with Freud's theory concerned with "The Structure of the Unconscious" in which he suggests that language usage is never neutral given that "conscious processes do not form unbroken series which are complete in themselves" and those aspects of the mind such as "perceptions, feelings, intellectual processes and volitions" interfere with these processes. (Freud, "The Structure of the Unconscious" 34-35). Thus, the writer may intend to write about self, but direct access to truth about the self is never totally accessible. Keenly aware of the work of Dilthey and Misch and their emphasis on a historical perspective, Gusdorf also notes that the person written of in biography is an important "historical presence," one who "acquires a sort of literary and pedagogical immortality" (31). Thus, as the early notions of autobiography were concerned with bios or the truthfulness of biographical facts involved in the historical record being narrated, this second phase of theoretical perspectives is concerned with a new.

(36) 30. perspective concerning the "I.". Indeed, Gusdorf suggests that the subject of. autobiography "seizes on himself for object" (32). Therefore, autobiography "is not possible in a cultural landscape where consciousness of self does not, properly speaking, exist" (30). Ultimately this critic also notes that autobiography will be limited to the lives of great men, such as St. Augustine, Montaigne, Rousseau, Newman, Goethe, Chateaubriand and Cellini, that is, those capable of presenting their own "work of enlightenment" (45). Francis Hart considers autobiography as the "plurality of mimetic and formal value", and he is concerned with three key elements which form what he has termed the "anatomy" of autobiography: a) the mimetic question concerning the way in which there is an interplay between history and fiction; b) a concern with the "purposive form and experimental development" of the autobiographical act; and c) the question of the "elusive" intention of autobiography to present 'truth' to a particular audience (220-221).. He also defines three types of autobiography: the confessional, the. apology, and the memoir; all three are seen as personal history. The confessional is concerned with truth about the essential nature of self; the apology demonstrates "the integrity of the self; and the memoir "seeks to demonstrate or repossess the historicity of the self (227).. Hart's analysis focuses on the autobiographies of. Goethe, Wordsworth, Mill, Benjamin Franklin and Yeats, but he also mentions the autobiographies of Malcom X, Eldridge Cleaver as "selves that undergo crisis" (230) and female author, Anais Nin. What is evident in Hart's definition is its affinity to Gusdorf's emphasis on truth-telling in personal rather than public history. Indeed, for Hart the confessional,.

(37) 31. the apology and the memoir involve personal history which "the autobiographer recognizes, interrelates, and attempts to manipulate toward some truth or integrity his relationships with his recoverable past, with his formal or technical options, and with his rhetorical and psychological intentions". (226). However, he also notes that. although truth telling is an intention of autobiography, it is generally elusive. Because autobiography has to do with talking about self, Hart defines this literary form as a genre that involves "subject matter related to psychological theory" (226). Furthermore, he notes that autobiography represents an interplay between an attempt at truth telling with regard to the past and those options for writing which are chosen on the basis of the author's intentions. Thus, unlike Dilthey and Misch who emphasize the documentary value of autobiography, Hart's perspective demonstrates a parallel with Freudian theory as he suggests the "unreliability" of autobiography where "truth, like form and intention, is a problematic goal" (224-225). Another important aspect is Hart's definition of the autobiographical subject which can take the form of two types of "I" both of which are normally in a state of tension: the "comprehensive, essential total 'I,' and the "partial personal truth, chronologically or analytically restricted" (229). Ultimately Hart points out that "no autobiographer writes without reasons for writing or readers to reach, but none has single reasons or readers, and the identification of reasons and readers is itself an experimental feature of the evolving autobiographical situation" (227).. Here Hart suggests that the. autobiographer selects the type of T to present to the reader; that is, the "I" may be an "inductive invention" or an "intentional creation" used as a means of affecting a particular response from the reader. Therefore, it is important to recognize and.

(38) 32. interpret the autobiographer's various intentions as they "interact and shift" within the narrative. This intension and shifting of intentions is of particular importance for understanding the corpus of texts considered for the present study. Indeed, as I discuss in the following chapters, it is precisely the various intentions of the autobiographer that contribute to the creation of a multi-layered text. Karl J. Weintraub's acknowledges the influence of Dilthey and Misch on his work. His study of the autobiographical mode focuses on man's need to understand his own sense of being and life and he traces this aspect in his exhaustive analysis of autobiography beginning with the Antiquity through the period of the Eighteenth Century. As Weintraub points out in the introductory chapter to his study, he is interested in the "proper form of autobiography wherein a self-reflective person asks 'who am I?' and 'how did I become what I am?'" (1). He also defines autobiography as self-representation which has to do with the personality of the individual as "part of the modern form of historical consciousness" (xi). Thus, the focus of his study is to determine the "gradual emergence" of individuality in autobiographic writings. In his discussion of the period of Antiquity Weintraub focuses on the lives of philosophers such as Socrates and Plato who employed the autobiographical mode as a means of portraying the meaning and being of life. He then notes that "the form of self presentation" (49) that stands out during the Middle Ages is that of the accounts of conversion and the monastic vitae contemplative which are evident in the works of figures such as St. Valerius, Dante, and Petrarch. During the Italian Renaissance he suggests that self-representation is found within the human document which focuses on "individual experience of an objective world." Here the autobiographer "creates a.

(39) 33. mental coherence of his experience of the world" which called into doubt previously held truths. (95). Weintraub cites the sixteenth century European autobiography of Montaigne and describes it as an "act of self-orientation" where there is a questioning and "confrontation with the inherited intricacy of opinions and ideas" (167). He then presents the period of the Mystics as a "sensitive reaching for the limits of inner consciousness . . . as part of a quest to present the inner self to others" (197). It is interesting to note that in addition to the autobiography of Heinrich Seuse, he also mentions the autobiographies of two women mystics: The Life of Teresa (St. Teresa of Avila) and The Life and Religious Experience of the Celebrated Lady Guion. He also examines the works of Protestant autobiographers such as John Bunyan, and Benjamin Franklin and suggests that this type of autobiography focuses on the Puritan way of life and the writer's inner struggle as an individual. In the case of the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin he points to a textual emphasis on the didactic mode in which the individual life served as an instructive one to be imitated by others. Weintraub continues his analysis of what he terms as the "historical mode of understanding self-development;" that is, life is now perceived as "process" or as secular "development" in which tradition and the stable order of things was being questioned (261). This extensive study concludes with a study of Eighteenth Century autobiography where there is an emphasis on the struggle toward self-hood and the "ideal of individuality" which is in constant struggle with society that is often perceived as hostile to individual development (325). He points out that it is during this period that autobiographical writing continues to turn away from the Christian tradition..

(40) 34. It is pertinent to note that Weintraub's perspective coincides with both Gusdorf and Hart who also note that the retrospective standpoint allows the author to impose interpretative meaning on the past. Thus, all three authors conceive of the creative, plural or interpretative aspect of autobiographical writing, yet there are limits, as the title of Gusdorf's essay would suggest, to this creative or revolutionary type of writing; that is, from all three perspectives, autobiography is connected to historical consciousness. For Weintraub, the subject of autobiography varies during different historical moments and he suggests there is a clear relation between the subject and the author who reveals his own sense of self-awareness. In Antiquity, the subject was most often the hero who was "representative of his society's values" (4) or that of the Christian soul who stood for all Christians. In the Middle Ages the author represented of the "ideal personality, and in the Italian Renaissance the subject was presented as the "prototype of the modern man . . . [the] freestanding person" (141). The subject presented by the Mystics, on the other hand, spoke of self observation, whereas the Protestant subject presented a self in quest of salvation. Weintraub suggests that the subject of eighteenth century autobiography can be perceived as a geistiges Individuum, that is, "a being" that is in a constant state of "interaction between itself and the sustaining natural ground and social world" (346). Ultimately, Weintraub asserts that genuine autobiography is based on the "self-searching quest" where there is an "inward orientation" (2). In his historical analysis of the genre he notes that initially autobiography involved "an ideal form of being [which] beckons men and women to model their lives upon it" (xv). However,.

(41) 35. not content with the limited view of the genre presented by Dilthey and Misch, he also suggests that "the mind fascinated by the vision of potential life finds no help in looking to models. By definition, they will not fit" (xvi). William C. Spengemann's discussion acknowledges two approaches to understanding what he calls "the boundaries of autobiography" (xii). One school of thought insists that autobiography must to some degree offer "a factual account of the writer's own life [...] based on historical rather than fictional materials" (xii). In contrast to this view are those critics who "assert the right of autobiographers to present themselves in whatever form they may find appropriate and necessary" (xi). Here Spengemann is referring to the conflict between fact and fiction in autobiographical writing. Whereas Weibtraiib's approach to autobiography is concerned with man's development of a historical sense of existence, Hart sees autobiography as. an. "interplay" between fact and fiction. As we can see, this viewpoint stands in opposition to Gusdorfs definition of autobiography and the importance of a "profound sense of truth" within the text. In his discussion of the confessional, Hart also emphasizes how the autobiographical mode may involve "truth about the essential nature of self," yet, he also recognizes that although autobiography involves "recollection" of the past, it is a "creative act" (234). Spengemann, on the other hand, understands autobiography as an "evolving tradition" (xiv), and his study presents a classification of autobiography in terms of the formal paradigm, the historical autobiography, the philosophical and the poetic autobiography with particular emphasis on psychological elements..

(42) 36. Spengemann's perspective on the formal paradigm is based on the Confessions of St. Augustine, and historical autobiography can be seen as the way in which the autobiographer, through self-examination, learns truth that serves as a knowledge source which provides the basis for explaining life. The philosophical autobiography involves discovery within the individual self that which provides "absolute, spiritual ground" (73) which serves as the basis for actively building a new society. The poetic autobiography has to do with the use of allegorical or metaphorical language as the basis for poetic expression which does not necessarily emphasize biographical facts, but rather fictive elements. This classification allows us to observe the different types of autobiography, or as Hart has noted, the "wide plurality" of this literary form. Spengemann's definition of the formal paradigm and its emphasis on learning truth as the basis for knowledge is similar to the perspective presented by Dilthey and Misch who assert that the truths of autobiography serve as .the basis for understanding a particular historical period. His emphasis on the importance of the 'absolute, spiritual ground' of the philosophical autobiography, and the means by which this spirituality provides the basis for building a new society, coincides with Dilthey's reference to those autobiographies which deal with life in relation to God and the climax of conversion as a justification of the spiritual existence in the life being presented.. It is, however, the category of poetic autobiography where we find. evidence which points to a broadening of the definition of autobiography; that is, we find a window which opens the definition to include elements not strictly concerned with bios, or the course of a life, but rather with the dramatized personae and the fictive metaphor as the basis for the narrative. As Spengemann has noted, although the.

(43) 37. presence of biographical allegory is used initially, it is ultimately fictional material that becomes the focus of narration. Also important to Spengemann's discussion is his view of the subject which he suggests is related to the type of life writing chosen by the author. The self of the Formal Paradigm, for example, is similar to the T defined by Gusdorf, Hart and Weintraub; that is, the main subject and object of autobiographies such as The Confessions of St. Augustine is the writer's own sense of self.. In historical. autobiographies, like those created by Dante, John Bunyan, and Benjamin Franklin, he suggests that there is an emphasis on the historic past and present and the way the writer expresses truth that explains life. On the other hand, just as Weintraub has noted that the subject presented by the Mystics and Protestant writers is one who speaks of self observation or of the self in quest of salvation, Spengemann emphasizes that the philosophical autobiographies of Rousseau, Wordsworth, and Thomas De Quincey are concerned with the natural soul which evolves and transcends simple experience. The subject of Poetic autobiography is similar to Hart's conception of "partial personal truth;" that is, the subject is represented in "certain narrative personae" who represent the autobiographer's search for that self which "he knows. . . wishes to know. . . [or] the self that knows or seeks to know" (120). Ultimately, Spengemann suggests that it is the "change from the "biographical to fictive metaphor" (121) and the use of allegorical language as a means of referring to the T that is of key importance in works such as Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh,. Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. and. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The notion of "the fictive metaphor" is of.

(44) 38. particular interest for the present study, especially in Chapter Four where my analysis of Dew on the Thorn, an autobiogfaphically informed narrative, focuses on the use of the fictional form which is used creatively to address the problematic of the female role within a cultural field marked by patriarchy. With the publication of Metaphors of Self in 1972, James Olney defines autobiography as "a single, radical and radial energy originating in the subject center, an aggressive, creative expression of the self, a defense of individual integrity" (15). In this definition Olney is apparently emphasizing the notion of the "self and the construction of self-representation within language, yet he modifies this definition as he suggests that rather than try to define what he perceives as the invisible self, it is more productive to look "sidewise to an experience of the self, and try to discover or create some similitude for the experience that can reflect or evoke it and that may appeal to another individual's experience of the self (29).. The metaphor, or this. "sidewise" look provides a connection between what the writer creates and what the reader relates to in the process of reading. Indeed, as Olney suggests, "metaphor is essentially a way of knowing," and it is through the metaphor that the image of self is presented and which "[makes] available new relational patterns [and] simultaneously organizes the self into a new and richer entity" (31-32). Later, in "Autobiography and the Cultural Moment" Olney defines autobiography as life writing, as self writing, and as "the most rarified and selfconscious of literary performances" (4). Here autobiography refers to the unfinished process of "being" and "existing," and it does not simply refer to a particular number of years of one's life, but rather to the "spirit" or "vital principle [...] the act of.

(45) 39. consciousness, or transcendent reality, or a certain mode of living, a certain set of personality and character" (239). What becomes apparent here is the parallel between the definition of poetic autobiography presented by Spengemann and Olney's amplification of what can be considered as autobiography.. As we have seen,. Spengemann suggests that the use of allegorical language as a means of referring to the 'I,' and Olney also asserts that autobiography is memory that returns to the past to create the subject. Thus, creativity is common to both perspectives and Olney ultimately explains that he prefers to use the term 'periautograpy'2 because it suggests a sense of writing about or around the self. He notes that: "What I like about the term . . . is precisely its indefinition and lack of generic rigor, its comfortably loose fit and generous adaptability" (xv). This sense of "indefinition" or writing "around the self suggested by Olney coincides with Freud's discussion of "forgetfulness" and "false recollection" in which newly emerging ideas or thoughts interfere with recall and memories. For example, Freud notes that "the memory exercises a certain selection among the impressions at its disposal [and] it would seem logical to suppose that this selection follows entirely different principles in childhood than at the time of intellectual maturity" ("Childhood and Concealing Memories" 62). This process of "selection" also parallels the definitions of autobiography presented by Gusdorf, Hart, Weintraub, and Olney; that is, the autobiographer chooses and interprets select elements of his or her life to present to the reader thereby resulting in what Spengemann has defined as poetic autobiography. " Olney explains that the term periautography was initially used in the seventeenth century by Count Gian Artico di Porcia "when he issued the 'Proposal to the Scholars of Italy' calling for scholars to write their intellectual memoirs for the educational benefit of the young'' (Memory and Narrative xv).