Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives by Smith and Watson recognizes three kinds of people who contribute to every life narrative – ‘the producer or teller,’ (Smith & Watson 64) ‘the coaxer’ (Smith & Watson 64) and ‘the readers’ (Smith & Watson 64). Scholars often investigate the producer and readers’ role in a life narrative. However, the equally significant, implicit role of the coaxer (e.g. the editor and publisher) is usually overlooked, therefore limiting the validity of a life narrative analysis.

Coaxing is a gentle form of persuasion – persuading an individual (in this case the writer of a life narrative) to tell their stories or add/drop information within the story itself in order to conform to the culture of the intended audience. Nevertheless, Smith and Watson mention how coaxing can easily become coercive – a more forceful form of persuasion such as deliberately adding/dropping information when translating a life narrative into another language. ‘Cultural imperatives’ (Smith & Watson 64)– customs that one must conform to (i.e. adding what readers will relate to in a memoir), to increase the chances of success (i.e. higher sales) – are usually what motivate editorial coaxers and coercers of a life narrative.

‘…Slave narrators were urged to recite their narratives of slavery degradations in the setting of abolitionist meetings and for the abolitionist press’ (Smith & Watson 66). Smith and Watson are bringing light to the fact that most slave narrators were coaxed to tell their stories by society. An example is the memoir The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano where Equiano (the author) admits that him writing his memoir was a “request” (Equiano 2) of “numerous friends” (Equiano 2) – his friends persuaded him to start writing his memoir. Such coaxing is highly significant in this case, as without it his memoir may have never existed.

Another positive affect of coaxing is present in the memoir,The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, by Malala Yousafzai. By producing a collaborative text with British journalist Chistina Lamb, Malala was able express herself in a way that engaged readers from a culture other than her own (i.e. western culture) which gave her an extreme amount of fame – youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner – as well as allowed her bring awareness to the issue of female inequality in education in Pakistan and throughout the world. Lamb’s coaxing played a main part in the memoir’s rapid spot to fame. It is not certain where exactly Lamb played her role, but subtle things like mentioning ‘God’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 7) instead of Allah in the memoir could be interpreted as coaxing from Lamb.

Despite the positive affects of coaxing, ‘the role of coaxer in assembling a life narrative can be more coercive than collaborative’ (Smith & Watson 68). An example of this is in the memoir I, Rigoberta Menchu. When the original memoir was translated into English, the editor edited it so it could be ‘culturally familiar’ (Smith & Watson 67) to readers. ‘Menchu has protested that the intervention of the editor, Elisabeth Burgos-Debray…. controlled the pattern of meaning of the narrative’ (Smith & Watson 68).

All in all, how the coaxers/coercers affect a life narrative is important for us as scholars to be aware of and include in our analysis. This is because coaxers/coercers influence the writer’s motive for writing a memoir (i.e. Equiano), and most importantly, alter the content in a life narrative in order to be culturally familiar to new readers (i.e. Menchu) resulting in higher sales (i.e. Malala).

Work cited:

Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2010. Print.

Equiano, Olaudah, and Robert J. Allison. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s, 1995. Print.

Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. N.p.: Little, Brown, 2013. Print.

@CTVNews. “Malala’s Impact, Two Years after Her Shooting.” CTVNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2016.