And... go!
I just got my qualifying questions for my dissertation proposal hearing. Three questions that I need to answer (10-15 pages each) in three weeks so we can have my hearing and so I can begin writing the actual dissertation.
Here's the first part of one of the questions:
"Question Two: What Counts as Truth?
Parallel to the question of fiction as research is the epistemological question of what counts as knowledge and truth. Lots of attention to this question has come up recently in discussions of how memoir straddles the blurry line between fiction and non-fiction. We understand that your book will be a work of fiction, but given how it so closely parallels your own lived experiences, you may find some useful ideas in this debate about what counts as truth. Developing your ideas in this area will help us to understand what you hope the readers of your dissertation will learn as well as what might be learned from the novel itself...."
Oy. Tell me again who suggested I do this...?
2 comments:
I think this question is interesting but is total bulls**t. It sounds like someone has had put the fear of James Frey in your committee.
I'm tired of reading fiction and having someone talk about how it is or it must be based on the person's life (can we say "Bastard Out of Carolina"?). This is new ? All fiction is based on the writer's life and experiences, etc.
This is true however there is also the idea that while all material is pulled from the author's imagination (and therefore are assumed to be pedicated on actual life experiences) some stuff really is "alien" to the author's daily routine -- e.g. Memoirs of a Giesha and almost everything Emily Dickenson wrote -- but must still be defended as portraying some aspect of a "truth" even though it may not be the truth contexualized by the author's actual experience. [see, I need to go on just like that for pages and pages....] I agree that the idea is a little silly but I actually think these guys (my committee) are more interested in having me respond to the various arguments that may come up around my dissertation once I present it to "the academy" then they are in making me jump through random rhetorical hoops... Maybe. It is also entirely possibly they just enjoy watching us doc candidates squirm. ;-]
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