The "I" in biography: the role of first-person point of view when writing the lives of others & 'Unlikely terrorist: Camilla Hall and the Symbionese Liberation Army'

Hanel, R.T (2018) The "I" in biography: the role of first-person point of view when writing the lives of others & 'Unlikely terrorist: Camilla Hall and the Symbionese Liberation Army'. PhD thesis, Bath Spa University.

[img]
Preview
Text
11566.pdf
Repository Terms Apply.

Download (925kB) | Preview

Abstract

This thesis contains both a creative and a critical component. In the critical component, my research explores the ways in which contemporary American biographers use first-person narration in their work. My focus is on questions of technique, particularly the selection of personal details, the moments in which the "I" appears, the consistency of the "I", and the narrator's voice. I closely examine three works that use the first-person approach in different ways: Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Susan Griffith's short biography/memoir "Our Secret", which appears in A Chorus of Stones. The creative component is titled The Unlikely Terrorist: Camilla Hall and the Symbionese Liberation Army, a book-length biography in which I include first-person narration. The book explores the life of Camilla Hall, a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, which was a radical domestic terrorist group active in the United States from 1973-1975. An important outcome of this research has been an increase in my understanding of the methods biographers use when inserting themselves into the stories of others. My critical research has shaped my creative writing, and I hope, will contribute to current scholarship about the place of first-person narration in biography.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Note:

The document attached to this record is the contextualizing research section of the thesis only. It does not include the creative component, which is the manuscript for the biographical novel 'The unlikely terrorist: Camilla Hall and the Symbionese Liberation Army'.

Keywords: PhD by Practice, biography, nonfiction, first-person narration, point of view, narrative voice, Jon Krakauer, Rebecca Skloot, Susan Griffin, creative writing, Camilla Hall, Symbionese Liberation Army, 1970s
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.17870/bathspa.00011566
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2018 10:07
Last Modified: 19 Feb 2024 19:08
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/11566
Request a change to this item or report an issue Request a change to this item or report an issue
Update item (repository staff only) Update item (repository staff only)