Tag Archives: life narratives

Voices from the “majority”

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In ASTU class, our studies have primarily focused on minority narratives, such as the Iraq war blogs written by Pax and Riverbend, Persepolis and What is the What. However, for there to be minority narratives, there must be the existence of dominant voices, and I will look at some of the voices from the majority.

At the beginning of this year, YouTube was caught up in the “Draw My Life” video tag. Basically, YouTubers are encouraged to draw and narrate their lives, compile it into a video, and post it for others to see. These videos establish a common ground for YouTube community members to interact and relate better with one another. Since then, many YouTube celebrities have created their own videos, which have been received quite positively by their audience. See below:

The popularity of these “Draw My Life” videos illustrates a couple of things:

  • YouTubers love knowing more about YouTube celebrities
  • Story telling, especially personal story telling, “sells well” aka has great appeal

Taking a step back, we see that what happened on YouTube has also been happening in the “Western” world for a while now. Various celebrities have produced autobiographical films that have hit the big screens. One Direction’s This is Us, Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never and Katy Perry’s Part of Me are just some examples of films, regardless of if they are actually good or not, who can count on having a fairly large viewership.

Both the “Draw My Life” videos and celebrity autobiographical films function similarly in that their fans are able to learn more about their celebrity idols. In terms of “community building”, I think that YouTube is more successful in achieving this, as YouTube celebrities and users have a place to communicate, while viewing celebrity autobiographical films in theatres doesn’t really allow for much interaction. Furthermore, while these videos and films tell the stories of celebrities, I don’t think that they act as mechanisms for “bearing witness”, at least, not in the way we have been studying in class.

The narrative work we have looked at in ASTU class centre around the idea collectively bearing witness to trauma. Although the celebrities may have overcome personal struggles, their autobiographical work is still largely driven by other motives. Asides for building closer connections with their fans, I think that celebrities who choose to share a part of their already privileged lives through the media are driven by the promise of money, and an increase in fame. Quite different from certain minority narratives that try to offer alternative views to the dominant voices.

Of course, it would be a shame to not mention the autobiographical films that do try to bear witness. For example, the film, Gandhi, dramatized the life of Gandhi and depicted the struggles during India’s non-violent independence movement. One of the most memorable moments during the film was the re-enactment of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which served to bear witness to the violence and trauma experienced by civilians during the actual massacre.

Although it is a bit upsetting to know  minority narratives are struggling to get noticed wile that dominant voices in life narratives consist of pop stars on tour, there is also work out, such as the film Gandhi, that are substantial and meaningful.

Are “minority” narratives best-sellers?

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As I was flipping through my ASTU notebook, I stumbled upon a couple of questions that I jotted down about a month ago during our discussion about autobiographical narratives. At the time, we were talking about how some life stories receive attention from the global community, while others remain silent. The question that I would now like to return to is this: “What kinds of life narratives become best-sellers and how can they affect others?”

While I was researching online, I came across a set of data posted by The Guardian that plotted the best-selling (auto)biographies since 2001. Although autobiographical work only made up a small percentage of book sales in 2012, it interesting how life narratives were at their peak of sales in 2001 and 2005. This set of data indicates several things. First, the genre, Arts, consistently remains at the top of all autobiographical book sales. Second, autobiographical book sales were at its highest during the years of 2001 and 2005. Lastly, after 2005, there has been a dramatic drop in the sales of autobiography. See below:

How can we can make further sense of this data? In the article, Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights, Schaffer and Smith note how Post-WWII global transformations have led to an increased interest in the production of autobiography and concern over human rights. The first half of the new millennium were full of global conflicts and transformations; the early 2000’s also saw various wars begin and end, coup d’états, and other crises that should have resulted in a greater proliferation of life narratives about such global events. If there is a greater production and interest in autobiographical work (especially in the genre of Arts) during times of conflict, then it should explain why book sales in the early 2000’s were significantly higher, right?

Apparently not. I was quite surprised when I came across this next set of data detailing the  50 best-selling autobiographies since 2001. Here are the top 5:

Looking through this list, I notice that only one of the top 5 best-sellers is explicitly about trauma, specifically, child abuse. Somehow, our studies in ASTU class led me to believe that books explicitly about trauma and bearing witness, such as Persepolis and What is the What, would widely popular, and possibly best-sellers. However, as I scroll through the list of the top 50 best-selling autobiographies, I realize that a majority of these books are written by and catered to a predominantly  “Western” audience. Judging from the book sales, minority narratives, particularly from the East, do not not have as great of a sale reception compared to narratives written by the West. Therefore, life narratives from the periphery may not be as widely distributed and consumed as we may think. This raises the issue of how consumers of life narratives may be neglecting the voices that are demanding to be heard and silencing accounts that speak about personal experiences such as trauma, oppression, and human rights abuse.

So now I end with even more questions: Are our priorities being shifted by those who control the book markets? How can consumers realize that their purchasing decisions they may be neglecting the voices that desperately need to be heard? Why has there been a decrease in the sales of autobiographies in the last few years, considering the tumultuous events that have occurred? What can we do about all this? Let me know what you think!