Burdens of Proof: Faith, Doubt, and Identity in Autobiography (Life Writing)

Originally published in Canadian Poetry Victoria University Press, As Jackson considers what distinguishes it from its prose counterpart, she notes various characteristics of the lyric: These qualities, Jackson argues, lead to verse biographies frequently offering portraits that are both uniquely intimate and pointedly incomplete, refusing to let readers think….

My review of Yann Martel's latest book is now online: Originally published in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies Dalton recalls that when she was growing up i…. Originally published in University of Toronto Quarterly Attack of the Copula Spiders: And Other Essays on Writing Biblioasis. Douglas Glover has made similar connections himself in this volume by collecting a diverse yet coherent set of essays: Throughout, Glover shows a special sensitivity to structure, whether involving whole novels or single sentences.

Glover wants writers to use livelier action words, instead. To cite an example that he gives: From Cohen to Carson: Originally published in Literary Review of Canada The warning should also be heeded by novelists who aspire to the kinds of feats that Ondaatje accomplishes so deftly and so often. Like his characters, he does hazardous work. Nor is it small lies such as creep into every personal story because the story sounds better that way.

Nor is it lapses or distortions of memory, with which honest autobiographies are replete. Imposture is distinct from all of these because it is a pretense; impostors are frauds, fakes, plagiarists, and phonies. They claim lives they have not lived, experiences they have not had, and identities that belong to other people.

They do so for many reasons and often with significant success, often, but not always, causing real damage in the real world.

However, though some of the cases I examine anger me, my project is not simply a moral one; rather, it sets out to explore histories of faith and of doubt. What do we believe, and why? Why, for instance, do we believe that regular autobiography tells the truth, or any kind of truth?

What leads us to doubt, and how do we excavate the truth that is eluding us? The impostor is like the Wizard of Oz, just a little person creating big effects from a secret hiding place.

How is imposture so different? Does it adopt the wrong posture? Does it hide the unacceptable secret? I have always had a soft spot for Doubting Thomas. He was a faithful disciple through difficult times, prepared to die with Jesus if need be John His faith could not go that far: For Thomas, proof meant a physical body and physical wounds John Though all the gospels list Thomas as among the twelve, only John's—by far and away the least literal—develops this story of Thomas's doubt.

For me, this doubt would have less impact if it appeared among the more grounded biographical narratives of Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

Faith, Doubt, and Identity in Autobiography

Indeed, who remembers Matthew's throwaway line at Thomas's call for factual proof is a shock. He doubts at the very point where everyone else is carried away with excitement.

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Their story is thrilling and astonishing Jesus has risen from the dead , but Thomas hesitates and asks for proof. So Doubting Thomas is the patron saint of my present work because his story goes to the heart of my concerns: How and why do astonishing stories arise, and with what effects?

How, and why, and with what effects, are they called into question? I did not read A Million Little Pieces when it came out or even when it became a bestseller. I was immersed at the time in the reading required for classes and research, so I depended on reviews and discussion for many books that were attracting the attention of friends and neighbours. However, by February , I noticed that we were into week five of the scandal that had followed James Frey's autobiography after it was shown to be a tissue of lies.

My desk soon became littered with printouts from the links from the links on the Internet. Why here and now?

She then explores the role of the media in the creation of much contemporary imposture, examining in particular the cases of Jumana Hanna, Norma Khouri, and James Frey. The book also addresses ethnic imposture, deliberate fictions, plagiarism, and ghostwriting, all of which raise moral, legal, historical, and cultural issues. Egan concludes the volume with an examination of how historiography and law failed to support the identities of European Jews during World War II, creating sufficient instability in Jewish identity and doubt about Jewish wartime experience that the impostor could step in.

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This textual erasure of the Jews of Europe and the refashioning of their experiences in fraudulent texts are examples of imposture as an outcrop of extreme identity crisis. The first to examine these issues in North America and Europe, Burdens of Proof will be of interest to scholars of life writing and cultural studies.

She has written extensively on autobiography and published two monographs: