I was, and always will be, a Disney fan. I could mouth the words to all the songs and even some scenes after re-watching a Disney movie five consecutive times. Mulan, Tarzan and Aladdin were my personal favorites; it was hard getting my attention when they were on. That’s why, this year, when my younger brother asked me to watch Aladdin with him, I was overjoyed – it’d been such a long-time since I watched one my favorite Disney movies! However, to my dismay, I was more irritated than content while watching Aladdin with my brother, who (once like me) couldn’t help but sing along to ‘Prince Ali’. In almost every scene, the only thing going through my head, which prevented me from enjoying the movie, I once loved, was the issue of ‘Cultural Otherness’ (Said 4).

Once I analyzed (in depth) Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, for my ASTU 100 class, I found that Persepolis “subverts the Western gaze” (Madella 1) that locates the Iranians in a position as the other and shows a more complex life in Iran through Marji’s identity construction. For Hillary Chute, the “embodiment of the self” (Madella 2) and the chance of materializing history and traumas make the graphic novel format the best way some women could express their stories (Madella 3). By these means, Satrapi makes use of autobiography and graphic novel in order to “subvert the Western gaze” (1) upon her showing to the Western reader a more complex perspective of herself and Iran in opposition to the homogeneous other constructed by the West about the Middle East (3). Through more research, I found that Marji, when living in Austria, realizes the “image of people from the Middle East was distorted in privilege of the image Europe created about the Middle East” (5).

Now, being aware of the issue of ‘cultural otherness’, I automatically applied it to Aladdin when watching it with my younger brother. However, just to be sure that ‘cultural otherness’ was applicable to Disney, I later conducted research and found that “in the last decade of the 20th century most Disney animated features focused on the depiction of cultural otherness…despite an apparent interest in spreading the knowledge of distant cultures, these films rely almost exclusively on conventional cultural metonymies to build the representations of the Other” (Giovanni 1). This evidence allowed me to continue researching ‘cultural otherness’ in Disney movies, as well as to analyze Disney movies themselves. I found that there is a remarkable concentration of such long-established, worldwide-known stereotypes – on the visual as well as verbal levels (especially in the opening scenes) where the portraits of the ‘Other’ are outlined in Disney movies (Giovanni 97).

In Aladdin, the 1992 film where a non-specified Arabic culture is portrayed, the peddler who plays the role of narrator in the film makes his first appearance as a distant figure on a camel, which moves slowly through a large desert. He has a hot sun at his back and a large turban on his head. “The sequence of drawings is dominated by nuances of red, ochre and light brown and a typical Arabic music underscores the slow, sinuous movements of the characters, as well as does the camera” (Giovanni 98). On the verbal level, the first words, which are said by the peddler, contain a conventional reference to the culture portrayed: “Ah, Salaam and good evening to you worthy friends.” The worldwide-known Arabic greeting is, however, immediately followed by good evening, as if to compensate even for the faintest sense of alienation the viewer might feel when hearing “Salaam”.

Additionally, while introducing his land to the foreign viewers, the peddler finds an opportunity to sell his merchandise, conforming to the stereotyped view by which people from this part of the world (the Middle East) are all more or less “improvised merchants” (Giovanni 99).

The issue of ‘cultural otherness’ in Disney movies needs to be put at the forefront, as it potentially distorts (twists) children’s perspectives of themselves and others in an increasingly globalizing world. Such distortion negatively impacts certain groups of people, as it fuels ignorance and eventually racism. However, due to recent demand (from youth) for accurate representation of cultures (particularly through social media), there have been positive changes to the approach Disney has taken when making films about ‘unfamiliar’ people and places. An example of this is in the recent 2016 Disney movie ‘Queen of Katwe’ – a film that depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi,a Ugandan girl living in a slum in Katwe who learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her performances at the World Chess Olympiads (watch the trailer below).

The film was shot entirely in Katwe and Johannesburg, keeping it grounded to the story it was telling.  In this way, it is a refreshingly genuine movie that loves its setting and its characters, and treats the people around its edges with care and respect, never condescending to them or to its audience (Queen of Katwe).  It’s a children’s movie that teaches kids to persevere through hardship and self-doubtbeautiful lessons through incredible performances by Black women – specifically, African women. It uses a story unique to these, often voiceless, people to teach audiences a lesson of their own self-worth (Queen of Katwe).

So, there is evidence of Disney’s progress away from ‘cultural otherness’, however, much more still needs to be done to make up for all the misrepresentation of cultural groups in Disney movies that made up my entire childhood.

Works cited:

Giovanni, Elena Di. “Cultural Otherness and Global Communication in Walt Disney Films at the Turn of the Century.” The Translator 9.2 (2003): 207-23. Web.

Madella, Thayse. “The Otherness in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis:
The Autobiography and the Graphic Novel as a Subversion of the Western Gaze” Inter-disciplinary. July 2012. Web 08 April 2017.

““Queen of Katwe” Delivers Much-Needed Representation.” DOWN Magazine. 01 Oct. 2016. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage , 1979. Print.

When publishing memoirs, writers pay the price of transparency, and the cost can become quite high when they write about family. With family memoirs, the stakes are always high, and there are ethical and practical choices that need to be made at every stage (Castro 4).

There has been a lot of debate on whether or not memoirists should give the public the whole truth about their family, especially when it comes to children, as such exposure could negatively affect their children’s lives (Castro 2). The New York Times article, “A Mother’s Memoir, A Son’s Anguish” explores such debates: David Sheff, whose memoir Beautiful Boy explores a child’s drug addiction, believes that “the imperative to protect a loved one, particularly a child, outweighs the responsibility to tell the truth” (Cohen); the memoirist, Susan Cheever, disagrees, saying, “’I strongly believe everybody has the right to their own story’; defining one’s material as inclusive of the intersecting stories of family members” (Cohen). In short, Cheever is basically saying that since memoirs, family memoirs in particular, are “relational narratives” (Smith 86)– they “incorporate extensive stories of related others within the context in order to act as a route of self-discovery for the author” (Smith 87) – they should not be any limits to how much of the ‘truth’ one shares with the public.

The fact that truth is high flexible and dependent on one’s perspective (Carter 46) means that relationality in family memoirs is bound to annoy some of the family members mentioned, not only because it exposes their embarrassing or shameful traits, but also because it shares stories that some family members may not necessarily view as ‘the truth’. Fortunately, some memoirists such as “Rigoberto González acknowledges, ‘I know that what I write down is simply my version, not the definitive, unchallengeable truth.’” (Castro 14). Nevertheless, since truth is greatly linked to power (Carter 46), the public, almost always, takes the memoirists account as truth since it’s usually the only version they get (the author holds the power). So, no matter how much the author acknowledges the fact that his account is bias, the unfair result of silencing family members’ unique perspectives on an event, will often, if not always, occur.

The essays in the book Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family provide insight on how authors wrestle with doubt, as well as highlights those moments when excluding family material may actually be the best choice (Castro 8). Jill Christman, whose stepmother’s “history of mental illness was so complicated, and sad,” (Castro 20) shares her decision “to leave her out of the memoir entirely.” (Castro 22). Paul Austin confesses his concerns about his daughter, who has Down syndrome, acknowledging that, “there are passages in the book that would hurt her, if she could read them. Should I have left those passages out?” (Castro 30).

When applying this issue to the book, Diamond Grill, by Fred Wah, are there any instances that could have potentially hurt, embarrassed, or even ‘silenced’ his family members? Possibly the “sloup” scene (Wah 66), when Fred Wah’s father mispronounced soup and “turned it into a joke, a kind of self put-down that he knows these white guys like to hear”? We should know that just because there hasn’t been a public feud between the Wah family, doesn’t mean the book didn’t offend anyone in it. Looking at the issue of family privacy and accuracy in depth has allowed me to read family memoirs such as Diamond Grill with an open-mind; constantly asking myself, “how could the author’s perspective have been different from others mentioned in the book”?

Works cited:

Carter, Kathryn. “Death and the Diary, or Tragedies in the Archive.” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2006, pp. 42-59, https://doi.org/10.1353/jcs.2007.0012

Castro, Joy. Family trouble: memoirists on the hazards and rewards of revealing family. Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 2013. Print.

Cohen, Patricia. “A Mother’s Memoir, a Son’s Anguish.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. “Autobiographical Subjects.” Reading Autobiography (2002): 21-62. Web.

The private diary of Myrtle Gamble Knister, wife of modernist Canadian writer Raymond Knister, was used as evidence to prove her husband’s drowning in 1932 was an accident instead of a suicide. However, her diary wasn’t considered significant enough to be placed in archives (Carter 46). Therefore, though there was a lot of useful, relevant information, her diary’s “contribution to Canadian literature is virtually nill” (Carter 47). Myrtle Knister’s diary portrays the unfortunate drowning of a joyful, successful writer (Carter 43); while Dorothy Livesay’s archive (her autobiographical stories), which dominates Canadian literature (Carter 47), present a “sexually frustrated, financially troubled, unhappy” (Carter 44) man who committed suicide. Despite ‘truth’ not having a fixed entity (Carter 46) and, in this case, being largely based on one’s perspective, for years Livesay’s theory was “unchallenged” (Carter 46), while Knister’s diary wasn’t viewed as significant enough to be recorded in an archive (Carter 46). This issue forced me to question the relevance of diaries in archival research – is the fluidity and flexibility of ‘truth’ suddenly irrelevant when it comes to accounts made in a diary? Do diaries not hold any significance when it comes to archival research?

Though most readers and some scholars believe private diaries shouldn’t be considered as archives, the reality is that diaries are very similar to what people expect in archives (48). For instance, Knister’s diary acted as a “wild card” (48) as it went against the widely held belief that Raymond Knister committed suicide; like archives, her diary brought about “new truths” (48) reminding readers that truth is not fixed. “The genre of the diary (especially those unpublished and unarchived)…performs a crucial cultural function in that it speaks to a deeply felt desire to have some kind of writing retain a close connection to unmediated truth” (48). In other words, Knister’s diary provides the ‘truth’ from her point of view that is not influenced by public opinion or expectation, therefore actually increasing the validity of her account.

Additionally, Knister’s diary is retrospective (51), making it very similar to an autobiography. Thus, further fuelling my confusion as to why it wasn’t recoded in an archive while Livesay’s autobiographical stories were. “With its retrospective, anticipation, and direct address to another, Knister’s diary exemplifies an instance of diary writing as archivization; it is a particular kind of publicly oriented diary, recalling the past for the benefit of the future” (53); her diary couldn’t be more fitting as an archive! Furthermore, “Pamela Banting identifies Derrida’s archive fever/drive with a death drive at work in archives” (54); as well as mentions how it is “intensified by the currency of the diary” (54). In other words, Knister’s diary has all the aspects of an archive.

In conclusion, due to all the similarities diaries have with autobiographies and the way diaries are ideal archives, I believe the reason Knister’s diary wasn’t recorded as an archive was not because diaries aren’t significant in archival research; but because what is considered ‘truth’ is greatly linked to power, “truth-telling and power correlate” (46). In this case, Livesay had higher “social currency” (46) and a greater foothold in the archives sector compared to Knister (46) and, therefore, had an account that was viewed as more credible to the public. Additionally, the “myth about the early demise of gifted artists” (45) further strengthened Livesay’s suicide theory and weakened Knister’s accident theory.

Since ‘truth’ is highly flexible and dependent on one’s perspective, Livesay and Knister’s accounts “cannot offer clarity, but rather a textual whirpool of written claims and counter claims…personal accounts and diaries that will not give up the body of Raymond Knister any more easily than the lake did” (55). So, the fact that the Knister’s diary wasn’t recorded as an archive had nothing to do with a lack of ‘truth’ compared to Livesay’s autobiographical stories, but more to do with power dynamics and public expectations/beliefs.

Works cited:

Carter, Kathryn. “Death and the Diary, or Tragedies in the Archive.” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2006, pp. 42-59, https://doi.org/10.1353/jcs.2007.0012

Graphic narratives are currently taking the world by storm, and not just with books as its medium; but also with movies and, most recently (amongst the younger generation), with video-sharing websites such as YouTube. I, as well as many experts in the field, believe that graphic narratives are in high demand, as they effectively represent emotions of trauma, frustration, etc. by providing what Hilary Chute calls ‘productive disjunction’ (Chute 101). The word ‘disjuncture’ is synonymous to disconnection, thus, graphic narratives present a disconnection from reality, which creates a child-like and cartoon-like effect productive of frustration, trauma, irony and critical reflection (Chatterji 141). In other words, productive disjuncture means that the lack of realism in graphic narratives allows the author’s/narrator’s issues to resonate more with the readers/viewers.

The viral ‘Draw My Life Challenge’ makes the current graphic narrative phenomenon quite evident. It involves famous YouTubers narrating their life story with a fast-motion video of their comic-like drawings on a whiteboard, highlighting key figures and events (usually unfortunate events) in their lives – a more modern type of graphic narrative. The ‘Draw My Life’ videos are one of the most viewed videos on the Internet; Dan Middleton – a British YouTuber – got more than 20 million views for his ‘Draw My Life’ video, which lead to the highly used ‘Draw My Life app’ on iTunes to be developed.

There are even well known YouTubers that dedicate their whole channel to comic animations and have one of the highest numbers of YouTube subscribers – people that stay updated on their latest videos – on YouTube. An example is Dominic, a YouTuber from Canada who has more than 3 million subscribers and uses simple black and white, comic-like animations to share different aspects of his life on his YouTube channel, Domics – a modern-day graphic narrative.

In one of his most viewed videos, ‘Short’, Dominic uses his voice and simple black and white animations to tell the story of how being short has been one of his main struggles in life. Though his drawings don’t accurately represent the real world, it could be argued that the simplicity of his drawings act as a strategy to allow viewers to develop a strong bond with his main character (himself) – ‘As Scott McCloud (1992) tells us, it is easier to identify with characters that are sketched in broad strokes since they have a universal, truth-telling potential’ (Chatterji 141). Therefore, the productive disjuncture causes the emotion of frustration felt by Dominic to be effectively transferred to his viewers.

Towards the beginning of ‘Short’, Dominic shows his irritation with how he’s frequently reminded by others that he is short (as if he’s been unaware about it throughout his life), by slowly having his narrated response of ‘shock’ and ‘enlightenment’ juxtapose with his drawings, i.e. having his eyes read ‘You Suck’ as he looks at the person that reminds him that he’s short. This uniquely and effectively expresses his sarcasm (which in turn highlights his annoyance) when ‘thanking’ people for reminding him about his physical appearance; as Michael Chaney (an expert in graphic narratives) said in his 2011 TedTalk, ‘…graphic narratives constantly juxtapose the symbol systems against each other, creating unique and inimitable effects’. Additionally, one could say that this scene provides a productive disjuncture, as the lack of realism (i.e. his eyes producing the words ‘You Suck’) effectively highlights his anger and results in the successful representation of his frustration towards being short.

Another key event in ‘Short’ is when Dominic drastically increases in size and becomes a giant (overtaking his tormenters). This fantasy, however, disappears after clouds of smoke cover the scene and ‘POOF!’ he becomes short again. Once again, productive disjuncture is present, as his disappointment with the reality of his height is emphasized and well represented through his child-like/cartoon-like drawings.

So, why do giving examples of productive disjuncture matter to us as scholars when evaluating graphic narratives? Well, as is said in Philosophy, ‘what would an argument be without any premises’? In this case, the argument is that graphic narratives are very effective in representing powerful emotions of frustration and discouragement, while the much-needed premise (in order to support the argument) is the productive disjuncture.

Works cited:

Chatterji, Roma. “Comic Gags and the Mahabharata War.” Society and Culture in South Asia, vol. 1, no. 2, 2015, pp. 127-46.

Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1-2, 2008, pp. 92-110.

Dartmouth. “TEDxDartmouth 2011- Michael Chaney: How to Read a Graphic Novel – March 6, 2011.” YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.

D0MICS. “Short.” YouTube. YouTube, 12 Oct. 2016. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.

TheDiamondMinecart. “Draw My Life – TheDiamondMinecart | 1,000,000 Subscriber Special.” YouTube. YouTube, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.

There has been an increase in media coverage for different marginalized groups, as seen with more documentaries and movies being made about them. It is quite easy to assume that just because such marginalized people (such as sex workers) are brought into the public eye, they are being accurately represented; when in reality, only one side of their story is being shared with the world as a tool for entertainment to increase ratings and views. “Across the channels, ratings and revenues delivering programmes – entertainment and lifestyle – have increased, while news and analysis have shown a corresponding decline” (Thussu 104). This therefore leads to “infotainment” (Thussu 1) – material that aims to entertain and inform. Consequently leading to remembrance (from the media) being mutually exclusive to representation of marginalized people.

“Strategic silences” (Jiwani 899) are used in the media all the time. Specifically, missing Aboriginal sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) have moved between being “invisible” (Jiwani 899) (not seen at all) to “hypervisible” (Jiwani 899) (over-seen) as rebellious and deviant (e.g. only seen as drug addicts). In her memoir, Missing Sarah, Maggie De Vries, mentions how even though her sister, Sarah De Vries (a sex worker DTES) was a drug addict, she had many other parts to her personality that made her human…that made her relatable. However, the CBC documentary on missing women DTES, that featured Sarah, didn’t acknowledge the fact that she was so much more than just a sex worker and a drug addict – in the documentary, the last image that froze of Sarah was her high on drugs (shown by her eyes being unfocused) (Vries 254). Instead of showing how loving (Vries 30) kind (Vries 90) and high-spirited (Vries 254) Sarah was, the camera only took footage of Sarah being “out of it” (Vries 254) – an act of hypervisibility. Clearly, Sarah as well as all the sex workers DTES were misrepresented in that documentary, “Neither what Sarah did for a living nor her addiction was all she was” (Vries 148).

To increase ratings, the media – seen through the CBC documentary – makes individuals hypervisible and deliberately focuses on “juicy” (Thussu 150) (usually negative) aspects of a story and leaves out others aspects (usually positive) to increase ratings and entertain the public. In doing this, the media missuses it’s power and misrepresents marginalized groups such as the missing Aboriginal sex workers in Vancouver DTES. As Maggie De Vries said, “Rememberance is a powerful act, but it must be done right” (Vries 254). In the CBC documentary Sarah wasn’t remembered for who she truly was, but “re-membered” (Vries 254) – recreated to be a perfect fit in the narrow, hegemonic idea of what it means to be a sex worker in order to attract the public.

Works cited:

Jiwani, Yasmin. Young, Mary Lynn. “On representations.” Missing and Mudered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse, vol. 31, no. 4, 2006, pp. 898-900.

Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print

Thussu, Daya Kishan. News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007. Print.

At 4:53pm on January 12 2010, Dany Laferrière (a Haitian-Canadian novelist and journalist) was having lunch in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake unexpectedly hit the country. More than 300,000 people died – Laferrière was one of the lucky ones that survived. In his memoir, The World Is Moving Around Me, each small entry is a snapshot of his native country before and after the earthquake. Laferrière captures different angles of Haiti, highlighting how Western journalists paint a general and bias portrait of his country; the scene after the earthquake was seen as a panorama; resulting in international aid instead of help strategies that are more sustainable – “The country needs energy, not tears.” (Laferrière 147)

A panorama is a picture containing a wide view of the whole region surrounding the observer. Describing the reports journalists give to the Western world on Haiti as panoramic, makes it easier to understand how doing this limits people’s awareness of all the different (positive) qualities of Haiti. A panorama is very broad, much like the common misconception that all there is to Haiti is being “cursed” (Laferrière 76); the West’s “two favorite words… ‘dictatorship’ and ‘corruption.’” An example of how a panoramic view was created was when his friend (a photographer), Ivanoh Demers took the moving photo of a “young man lifting his eyes to us as a mixture of pain and gravitas” (Laferrière 59) that went viral and became one the most famous pictures representing the Haitian people after the earthquake.

Having such images of grief as the only images other countries see inevitably makes foreigners see Haiti through one lens. Laferrière is not saying such views of hardships and loss aren’t true about Haiti, but stresses how it’s simply one side to the story. He shows people beginning to go about their daily tasks: shopping at the Caribean market (Laferrière 35) and getting their cars repaired (Laferrière 152) – Haitians have “the ability to find a solution when everything seems blocked” (Laferrière 31).

Thomas G Couser in his book, Signifying Bodies: Disability in Contemprary Lide Writing, uses the term “rhetoric of emancipation” (Couser 44) – a strategy that aims to ‘represent many lives that go unrepresented’ (Couser 45) in disability narratives. This concept can be applied to what Laferrière is doing in his memoir – representing the Haitian population as hard working and resourceful, instead of corrupt and helpless (Laferrière 76). In his entry, “The Mango Lady” (Laferrière 32), a woman is on the streets of Port-au-Prince selling mangoes only a day after the earthquake hit. This shows how resilient the people of Haiti are – “people are so used to finding life in difficult conditions that they could bring hope down to hell”( Laferrière 32)…a quality the media doesn’t show. Laferrière’s memoir could be seen as a form of “autoethnography” (Couser 46), which is a form of research where the author uses personal experiences to connect to a wider social meaning (Couser 46), which in this case could be how the media misrepresents developing countries as a single story of poverty and helplessness.

Laferrière explicitly highlights the media’s panoramic view of Haiti before, during and after the 2010 earthquake and ‘frees’ (with the rhetoric of emancipation) his people from being viewed in a single negative light by the rest of the world (by the West in particular). This is of value to us as scholars because it questions the ethics of international journalism and research – is it’s main goal to bring awareness and help the disadvantaged or to entertain their market? Laferrière opens up the debate of immorality in international journalism – a relevant issue in our increasingly globalized world.

Works cited:

Laferrière, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Couser, G. Thomas. Signifying Bodies: Disability in Contemporary Life Writing. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 2009. Print.

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.

Through looking at the epitext (i.e. book reviews) of The Diary of a Young Girl, we as scholars are able to ‘determine how audiences cluster at a particular historical moment around particular kinds of narrative’ (Smith & Watson 101).

The first version of Anne Frank’s diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, was published in 1947. A new version was published in 1995 with the title The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. The definitive edition contains more material, such as Frank’s curiosity and excitement about sex – all of which were removed by Otto Frank (Anne’s father) in the original.

In 2009, Culpeper County Public Schools in Virginia decided to stop assigning the definitive edition of The Diary of a Young Girl to its students, due to it not being suitable for schoolchildren. In her review of the book, Nathalie Rothschild, an International Correspondent for Spiked Review, describes the Public Schools’ decision as backwards and “daft”, as she believes such realistic instances in Anne’s life won’t turn children into “sexual beasts”. Instead, it will (as it did for her) captivate teenagers even more – what is seen as inappropriate is in fact “all the stuff of teenage life.”

Additionally, a review written by Obsidian Blue (Obsidian Black Death), a blogger on the popular website Booklikes also gives positive feedback on the raw and uncompromising portrait of Frank in the definitive edition. Blue found Frank’s candidness in her anxiety and constant fights she had with her mom as relatable – “She felt more real to me in this version than she did in the version I had read decades ago.”

What’s more, a review from Amazon, the largest internet-based retailer in the world, explains why the definitive version is a good read (given 4.6/5 stars) by saying, “Anne emerges as more real, more human, and more vital than ever.” Once again, emphasizing the significance of the strong connection readers feel towards Frank through the definitive edition.

By the time Amazon existed both editions were made available to the public, however the definitive edition (ranked#349,229) had a drastically higher number of sales than the critical edition (ranked #1,092,138). This could be due to the fact that the authenticity was believed to be higher in the definitive edition – the audience craved a sense of connection with Frank.

Furthermore, since these two editions were published more than a decade apart, there could be a relationship with the time period and the consumer appeal in a life narrative. Therefore, to answer Whitlock’s question, a life narrative becomes a best seller by strategically engaging with the audience of a specific time period. Since we are currently living in a less rigid time where (in a life-narrative) one’s flaw is seen as an asset instead of a liability, it is no surprise that reviews such as Blue’s, stating how Frank’s not a “sweet little girl” but was at times “moody” and “self-centered” boosted sales – due to the idea that perfect is boring and non-relatable.

Being able to interpret this through using the epitext is important to us as scholars as “we can more carefully specify how readerly audiences are shaped and changed both historically and in this moment of global capital” (Smith & Watson 102). In other words, through reviews, we can get a clearer sense of what readers in different time periods yearn for in a life narrative – explains why books are best-sellers and why they’re republished.

Works cited:

Rothschild, Nathalie “Stop Perverting Anne Frank’s Diary.” Spiked. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

Blue, Obsidian “The Real Anne Frank – Obsidian Black Death.” Booklikes. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

“The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition – Kindle Edition”. Amazon. Web. 06 Oct. 2016

Frank, Anne, Otto Frank, Mirjam Pressler, and Susan Massotty. The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

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

Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager as well as an activist for female education, was targeted by the Taliban and shot in the head as she was returning from school on a bus. Having survived, she gives a personal account of her life as ‘a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain…’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 13).

The book, I am Malala, shines light on the major role her father played in shaping who she is today by mentioning the way he treated her equally and the powerful name he gave her. According to research on self-fulfilling prophecy (Jahoda 1954) names can have an effect on self-concept and can indirectly influence how we act. Therefore being ‘named after Malalai of Maiwand, the greatest heroine of Afghanistan’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 14), may have influenced her drive and success as the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Few sources such as The Washington Times state I am Malala falls under the autobiography genre, while most sources such as The Washington Post see it as a memoir. In fact, ‘Amazon.com’ put memoirs and autobiographies in the same category. So, is there a difference between the two? Postcolonial theorists and modern-day writers believe there is a slight distinction between an autobiography and a memoir. An autobiography focuses on the chronology of the writer’s entire life while a memoir covers one specific aspect of the writer’s life, allowing for more detail, thus tends to be more entertaining. Therefore, is I am Malala an autobiography or a memoir?

Chapter 1 focuses on the Taliban and how Malala was shot, ‘By the time we got to the hospital my long hair and Moniba’s lap were full of blood’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 12); however as the book progresses, readers begin to be familiar with the chronology of Malala’s life, ‘When I was born…’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 13). Nevertheless, the whole book revolves around the Taliban, ‘People often said the Taliban might kill my father but not me.’ (Yousafzai and Lamb 162).

‘In contemporary writing, the categorization of memoir often signals autobiographical works…. yoking the author’s standing as a professional writer with the works’ status as an aesthetic object’ (Smith & Watson 4) In other words, memoirs and autobiographies are often used interchangeably. However a majority of sources view I am Malala as a memoir, which is compelling to us as scholar-readers, since we ‘are invited to think about the significance of that choice and the kind of reading it invites’ (Smith & Watson 4). It may be that most viewed it as a memoir because it’s not aimed to just provide a clearer picture of Malala, but to change the way the reader views the world – aimed to provide awareness of the severity of gender inequality in countries like Pakistan.

Work cited:

Yousafzai, Malala & Lamb, Christina (2013). ‘I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for an Education and Was Shot by the Taliban’ New York, NY : Little, Brown, & Company.

Smith, S & Watson, J (2010). ‘Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives’. University Of Minnesota Press; 2nd ed. edition

Deluzain, Edward (1996). ‘Names and Behaviour’. Behind the Name. Accessed: September 18 2016 

Taube, Michael (2014). ‘Book Review: I am Malala’. The Washington Times. Accessed: September 18 2016

Arana, Marie (2013). ‘Book review: I am Malala’. The Washington Post. Accessed: September 18 2016

Amazon (2013). ‘I am Malala’. Accessed: September 18 2016

Klems, Brian (2013). ‘Memoir vs. Autobiography’ The Writer’s Digest. Accessed: September 18 2016